near grace be about as close to stereotypical and predictable a you can get . boy lose mother and boy have alcoholic despondent father and boy meet wild and crazy girl and fall in love and wild affair learn about life . grow up . there it be . you just watch near grace only i save you the boredom of watch it happen . not that this story can not be turn into something good because with a decent writer and director and cast anything . even the most stereotypical of story and genre can be make fresh and new and interesting but nearing grace doesn not even try . it say here be the recipe and do not stray from it and do not try anything new . slap it together and throw it out there and that exactly what they do . long time tv director rick rosenthal isn not use to make something long than 45 minute and isn not use to the fact that we need to know about these character in the run time of a film because they would not be back next week to give u more . he make the same mistake in helm the disastrous last installment of the halloween franchise . empty character and short boring plot and and no depth and that be exactly what we see here with near grace . two twenty four year old and a twenty seven year old play the lead high school senior in the film . this isn not 90210 rick . i think gregory smith be probably a good actor . he come from do television ( everwood ) and be probably look for something off the beaten path to make people notice him but to do that he will need something with range and he couldn not have get any more vapid and empty than the character he play and henry nearing . he have no characteristic and no depth and no good dialog and i do not blame that on smith other than he should have read the script well . ashley johnson be decent enough and and probably have more depth than most of the other character combine a the next door neighbor best friend of henry . johnson be at least still baby face enough to pull off the high school look but her and smith have zero chemistry a soul mate and best friend . david morse be a hell of an actor . he have have some amazing role and do some terrific work and somehow they shove him into this emotionless dull portrait of a grieving man ( have lose his wife ) turn to alcohol and look like a hippie . they should have leave the story and character building to his character because if anyone in this cast could have pull it off it would have be morse but he fall flat with this script . and finally we come to the lovely jordana brewster . the girl be sexy and there be no doubt about it and but that doesn not even come close to carry a film . her wild and crazy portrayal of the object of henry affection and grace chance and be not even close to what it should be . she look so much old than she should be ( which she be and ) they give no explanation a to her character flaw or reason and only that she appear to be a skank who want to seduce henry for no particular reason . brewster and smith actually do have decent chemistry and there be some steamy love scene and a cute little our clothes be go let run through the street scene but you just do not give a lick about their character or what happen to them and you feel yourself beg to know more . so many character and so much potential to explain them all and yet never happen . you never get to care or find out any information but rather just watch henry have this steamy little fling and then somehow learn from it and graduate . it a bore fest plain and simple . i do not know who to blame but i think it mostly to rest on the shoulder of the writer and the director because they try to create something that at best might be an r rat episode of dawson creek but even that be far more entertaining than near grace could ever be ( witty title by the way . ) steer clear of this indie film because it have brad renfro and dominique swain write all over it and if you know what i mean by that you will know how bad this really be . negative .