Review: ‘Eric LaRue’ is a Sensitive Look at Grief, Devastation, and Faith from First-Time Director Michael Shannon

In the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting, the focus is typically on those who have lost their lives and the identity of – and potential continued threat posed by – the shooter. But as time goes on, those with one degree of separation to any victims remain affected, and survivors are likely to be traumatized by what they’ve experienced, even if they didn’t end up losing their lives. Considering the experiences of those connected to the perpetrator can be more complicated and far from anyone’s priority, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not transformed in a major and almost certainly permanent way.

Janice LaRue (Judy Greer) is not having an easy time. Her husband Ron (Alexander Skarsgård) has thrown himself into a local church and become close to one of its active members, Lisa (Alison Pill). Janice runs into the pastor from the other church where she’s a member, Steve (Paul Sparks), who encourages her to go through with what he’s been suggesting for a while: agree to a meeting with the mothers of the three boys killed by Janice’s son Eric, who is currently in prison and who Janice has yet to visit while she’s trying to cope with the fallout of his unimaginable actions.

This is not the first film to feature the parents of a school shooter as its protagonists. It immediately recalls Rudderless, William H. Macy’s directorial debut, which followed Billy Crudup’s mourning father as he formed a band to play his late son’s music as a way of trying to understand him. This film is much lonelier, with Janice removed from society, occasionally encountering something that reminds her of the horror that she’s been through and that she couldn’t do anything to stop it. It’s also not nearly as stylized or mournfully meditative as We Need to Talk About Kevin, focusing instead on the isolation of its protagonist and the way in which she can’t even muster the energy to find a way back to some momentary sense of normalcy.

Adapted by Brett Neveu from his own 2002 play, the two plus decades that have passed since its first staging represent an unfortunate lack of progress about which Americans are all too aware. Initially inspired by the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, it now has far too many real-life events from which to draw details. While there is discussion of the nature of the fatal wounds suffered by the victims, this film doesn’t show any of that on screen, instead allowing it to be internalized on the faces and in the words of the mothers who have only those horror stories to remember as their children’s final moments.

This marks the directorial debut of actor Michael Shannon, who is no stranger to difficult, contemplative roles but chooses not to appear in the film. Its star is Greer, an actress who has a knack for comedy but, as evidenced here, is just as skilled at heart-wrenching drama. Skarsgård is unusually chipper and coping entirely through distraction, with Ron living at the opposite end of the spectrum from Janice. Sparks portrays someone who means well but also doesn’t want to truly interrogate the disturbing nature of what has transpired and instead dwell only on helping those involved find some unattainable closure. This film’s focus on faith speaks to a universal desire for answers that can’t always be found, even if the notion of a divine plan can provide comfort in certain cases. There’s much to be unpacked in a film that doesn’t posit that it can extrapolate the meaning behind everything but does engage with its unpleasant and disturbing content in a sensitive and resonant way.

Movie Rating: 7/10