I just saw this film last night at the Denver Film Festival and didn't think it was very good. From what I have read about the original play, that sounds like it would have been the better version to see. The dialog in this film did not sound real to me. The characters were not developed. I didn't understand why the mother was so unhappy. I couldn't believe, or have sympathy for, the daughter's choices. I didn't buy the relationship between the black boy and the white boy at all. The part of the story about black woman's family was more believable but still not explored enough. Also, I think most Chicagoans will have trouble with the veracity of some of the scenes. I lived all my life in Chicago until two years ago and, I'm sorry, white teenagers do not hang out in the projects. Nor do their white fathers go there at night and hang around on roof tops smoking cigarettes.

Anthony LaPaglia stars as Leo Waters, a Chicago-based architect whose domestic life is not as stable as his professional; to wit: his eldest child, Martin (Sebastian Stan), has just dropped out of college and his aimlessness leads to an unlikely assignation; his youngest, daughter Christina (Hayden Panettiere, currently on NBC's hit series "Heroes" as the cheerleader impervious to pain), whose blossoming into young womanhood is proving to be a painful event; and his wife Julia (Isabella Rossellini), a homemaker whose anal retentive disposition is masquerading some still waters running deep. To add further complication, enter Tonya Neeley (Viola Davis), a woman crusading for a petition to have her housing project building be torn down. Convinced the design is the main culprit to the tragic underpinnings of her situation, Tonya elicits Leo's help by forcing him to sign her petition, figuring his name will get the civic wheels in motion. Leo naturally declines, since his ego in check will not recognize that this is the blame for the building's plague of problems (i.e. drug dealing on the premises and general vandalism). But that will not stop Tonya's quest for closure.

Based on a play by David Greig, a Scottish playwright, novice director Matt Tauber (a fellow American playwright and film producer making his debut here), adapts with a leaden storyline that mars a genuine plot point: how does housing truly affect its populace. He instead sets up one unlikely premise (Martin suddenly having a gay encounter; Christina lamely seducing a truck driver; Julia going off her nut, et al) that serves no real pay off and loses interest in Tonya's plight (it is apparent that she lost one child, while her surviving off- spring are so disparate they may as well be strangers), which should have been the central focus.

While the storytelling misses its mark however the acting is on-target. LaPaglia, one of my favorite actors, gives a complex yet sublime turn as the slightly arrogant and apparently clueless titular character. He is matched note for note by Davis (last seen on screen in a small yet memorable performance in Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center"), imbuing Tonya with dignity yet allowing her inner indignations brim to the surface not unlike a Sameul L. Jackson character.