Not an Angst-Ridden Coming of Age Film

by Sandra Olmsted

While Lean on Pete could have been like the over-abundant coming-of-age films starring a kid tackling adult problems or teen angst, writer-director Andrew Haigh foregoes the melodrama of teen angst for a shocking reality check for the audience. By incorporating sometimes too much but subtle commentary on the lives and struggles of the American underclass, Haigh gives the audience an honest, unadulterated view of Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) and his struggle to survive the dark world he inhabits with what at first seems teenage nonchalance. While Magnus Jonck’s distancing, beautiful cinematography and James Edward Barker’s evocative score aid Haigh innovative vision, its success is largely thanks to the stoic portrayal by Plummer.

The film opens with Charley and Ray (Travis Fimmel), his good-hearted, caring, but womanizing drunk of a father, relocating from Spokane, Washington to Portland, Oregon in yet another attempt at a fresh start, which will again be jeopardized by Ray’s inability to be a responsible adult and parent for Charley. Left to his own devices, Charley runs into an opportunity to make a little money at a run-down, last chance track near their new home when Del (Steve Buscemi) offers Charley a job helping with the horses. Charley quickly develops a special attachment to five-year-old quarter horse named Lean on Pete. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to Charley, Lean on Pete is destined not for greatness but slaughter in Mexico as his racing days draw to a close.
Meanwhile, Ray takes beating for being the other man in a tryst with and married women and ends up in the hospital. Charley has no way to reach Ray estranged sister and the only motherly figure that Charley remembers since his mother walk away years ago. While Ray recovers, Charley begins sleeping in the horse barn to be near the only real friend he seems to have, Lean on Pete. Del, who is pretty good to Charley, offers advice on manners and learns a bit Charley, but like Del well-developed lack of attachment to his horses, never really understands Charley’s predicament. Bonnie (Chloë Sevigny), a jockey who rides Lean on Pete and might be able to save Pete by bringing over the finish line to win, warns Charley about the dangers of thinking of the horses as pets when they aren’t.

When Pete’s last chances evaporate, a devastated Charley steals Pete and heads across the forbidden desert of desperation and the upper Midwest. Armed with little more than determination and a bit of fatherly advice — “All the best women have been waitresses at one point,” — Charley sets out to find his aunt. As he drives the stolen horse trailer over the mountains, crosses deserts on foot, and struggles to survive temporarily among the city-bound homeless, Charley sticks to a child-like belief that goodness and honesty will prevail. On the final leg of his journey shocking violence and tragedy again redirect his life and — be warned — this is not a kid friendly film. Although Charley has used his resourcefulness to discover some clues about where to find his aunt, he has miles to go and luck to find in order to reach his Aunt Martha (Rachael Perrell Fosket) and the motherly safety he believes he will find with her.

Although a tearjerker containing perhaps too much social commentary on the plight of the least of us, Lean on Pete does delivers not a coming-age story but much need message. The film urges the audience to reconnect with an America where sympathy, understanding, and compassion are core values. Charley, in fact, begins Lean on Pete as a child, and, in the end, returns to that situation after a harrowing journey, and film is more a Greek classic quest than a coming-of-age film. Besides Plummer’s stellar performance, Buscemi’s role provides the actor an opportunity to play more than the city-bound, film noir-esque characters he typically portrays, and Buscemi rises marvelously to the occasion. Rated R for language and brief violence, Lean on Pete is a 24A release which runs an engaging 121 minutes. Based on Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name, Lean on Pete is in theaters now and worth seeing since Lean on Pete may well get some Oscar nods.

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