Created by Ed Dougherty, and Brady Hall, 'Scrapper' is a film that is serious and comical at the same time. Dark, witty, almost haunting at moments...it is broken up just as quickly with humor. I could see this movie being a complete comedy, or a complete tragedy, depending on the perspective and tone shown.
Ed Dougherty (writer), and Brady Hall (writer & director) tow the middle ground where most of us live. There is comedy in tragedy and tragedy in comedy.
The story: Hollis Wallace (played by Michael Beach) a man with a comical name (not the point however) is a scrapper, he collects metal from the Seattle area and uses his earnings to help take care of his mother. He is lonely, isolated, a misanthrope, but all of that changes when he meets a troubled girl and forms the first real friendship he has had in years.
I was a scrapper myself, for a time, but I scrapped in a small town where the worst people did crystal and the best wanted to charge you for their waste scrap. It is an interesting life, and I can say the movie did a pretty good job portraying that world. Hollis Wallace meets people, sees them when they are most exposed, in their homes and does his best to make a living.
I was drawn into this film from the start. I didn't think the dialogue was all that powerful, it felt a little forced, written to explain situations and feelings, it at points came off unnatural. That said, I didn't care. Michael Beach (Hollis Wallace) played a genuine role. Anna Giles (Swan, the troubled girl) played the character of despondent and lost girl who refuses to admit she is lost realistically (believe me, I have known many in my life).
I don't know how to explain the attraction. I watch some movies...there is just no pull, no connection. But this movie, even though half of it is watching a 40 year old man and 18 year old girl pick up metal, I couldn't look away. I was waiting for the explosion, the realization, the bond, the feeling, the thing that makes life so worthwhile: the ever lasting connections we form as people. I was not disappointed in this film.
