There are two ways to look at this film: Either it's a very well written Afterschool Special, or it's a really bad teen angst drama. It's so full of cliches and plot devices that we sometimes get ahead of the film. But here's the kicker. Just when we think we have it figured out, Scripter John Comeford and Director John Jacobsen go with the softer touch. In many ways this saves the film from being an all out disaster.

The film concerns young Simon, a whitebread upper-middle class kid going through your typical white upper-middle class kid teenage problems. Simon gets in a bit of trouble here and there. He's a bit upset because his mother died when he was a child and his father remarried. He treats his stepmother with scorn and dismissal. Eventually, Simon goes away to prep school in hopes of one day attending Harvard.

Now here is where it gets interesting. At school, Simon hooks up with an older student. His peer starts him smoking pot and then takes him to a concert. We assume he is going to see the Grateful Dead because everyone wears tie-dyed shirts and dresses and acts like 60's relics. The band that Simon and his buddy soon begin "touring" with (i.e. going to their concerts around the country) is never named. Simon meets a girl, becomes involved with drugs, gets busted, goes to rehab and eventually has to confront his father and his past. It's oh-so typical.

But Comeford really works hard to make it subtle. Simon's problems are typical movie-of-the-week problems but the film doesn't make them grandiose. In fact, in many ways, it treats them as run-of-the-mill. They only matter to us because they matter to Simon. I don't wanted to ruin the little twists Comeford invents here. They are nothing so original either. It's just that we keep expecting it to get stupid and overblown and overly dramatic and it never really does. Better yet, it isn't filled with morality or platitudes about the dangers of drugs or dropping out of school or any of that stuff. There are no real "bad guys" and no real "evils" in Simon's life. Just the little demons he has allowed to consume him. Just normal problems that many of us have to face. In this way, the film is quite likable. It gets it's message across by never once being preachy, pedantic or ham- handed.

Devon Sawa (a real cutie still best known for showing his butt in "Now and Then") does a pretty fair job as Simon. It's easy to fall under his spell. Only when the film calls on him to be angry does he fall flat on his face. A string of "Fuck You's" becomes the only hammy part of the film. And, also to the film's dismay, Sawa has zero acting chemistry with Bill Smitrovich (the father on TV's "Life Goes On") who plays his father. And he also has almost no sexual chemistry with love interest Tara Reid ("American Pie"). For a while, we think Sawa's going to hook up with this scraggly hippy guy in a wheelchair but it, of course, doesn't happen. It's an understated "gaydar" thing you can pick up on if you want to. It's a nice counterpoint to the film's only subtle "villain," who happens to be both black and gay (or at least bisexual). This isn't done to make the black or gay guy the villain per se. I think it's just a bad casting decision. The actor, Colman Domingo, is quite good and likable; He deserves a gig. Perhaps just not this one.

"Around the Fire" isn't a bad film. I liked it quite a bit. Sawa and Eric Mabius ("Welcome to the Dollhouse," "Cruel Intentions"), who plays his older school chum, are quite easy on the eyes. If you like females, Reid is certainly luscious in a modelesque sort of way. And the story's subtle twists on a not-so subtle morality tale are quite easy to swallow. The question is... Who wants to pay $7 for just that?

Note:

Songs in the film by the Dead, Phish, Bob Marley, Dire Straits, The Meters and others.

Sawa's feature "Final Destination" opened in Austin on the same day this film was screened at SXSW

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