Sunlight Jr. Review
By David Kempler
You Won't See the Light
On its face, "Sunlight Jr." looks like it might turn out to be a big winner. It has Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon in lead roles and a brief synopsis makes it sound promising. But as everyone learns by the age of two, lots of promises get broken.
Melissa (Watts) and her boyfriend Richie (Dillon) live together on the edge of total poverty. She has a minimum-wage job in the local Sunlight Jr, which is a 7-11 type convenience store. She is habitually late to work, not because she is a screw-up, but rather because her life is screwed up. Her boss is an idiot who gives her grief when he is not heading to his private office with a naked gal magazine under his arm.
Richie is a paraplegic alcoholic who talks a far better game than he plays. He tells her all the time how much he loves her and how he will provide for her, but while she is at work, he drinks and fools around with the other local losers. We believe that he loves her and that she loves him, although at times it's hard to understand why she loves him. Then again, in real life we often run into similar relationships that make no sense.
Their lives together take turns for the worse, forcing them to move in with her alcoholic mother and a bunch of little kids that are always there for some reason. A couple of other subplots evolve, none of which are particularly compelling. There are the usual conflicts among various characters, but it's a real chore to figure out who to root for. Melissa is the only barely likeable one in the bunch, but it's difficult to summon much sympathy for her, either. Justin (Norman Reedus of "The Walking Dead") serves as the main guy we are supposed to boo and hiss at. It is a very un-fleshed out role.
"Sunlight Jr." is disappointing. It's not particularly dramatic. It has no comic relief. It evokes zero emotion from the audience. It's not good. It's not terrible. It just is. It sheds light on nothing.
