viewer of independent film know that once or twice a year they be go to see story about dysfunctional family and they have come to expect them and it become more of a challenge to keep them fresh but here despite the good cast it just seem more of the same . story be about the travis family who be try to recover from the suicide of matt ( kip pardue ) who be a very promising high school swimmer . ben ( jeff daniel ) be the father who withdraw from everyone and have never treat his other son tim ( emile hirsch ) as well a matt but he do communicate ( of some sort ) to his mother sandy ( sigourney weaver ) who find his stash of pot and start to smoke it . spoiler alert sandy also start to flirt with much young men like the check out cashier at the grocery store but when she attempt to buy more marijuana she get bust and haul off to jail . she doesn not tell anyone what happen but she do discover bruise on tim body and also that ben have take a leave of absence from work . after all this happen sandy fall ill and land in the hospital where her life be in danger which force ben to realize that he may have to come to term with lose another part of his family . this film be write and direct by dan harris who have work with bryan singer on x2 and also the upcoming superman film and while his script allow these character to have genuine moment of express their pain and confusion the story ( for me ) just have too many thing throw in . the script touch on so many different area that you need a scorecard to keep track of them all include drug and sex and love and infidelity and abuse and neglect and experimentation with homosexuality and and a life threaten illness . if all those scenario weren not enough for you harris then tack on a plot twist at the end that suppose to sum up and explain most of everyone feeling towards tim . while i do roll my eye at least 2 or 3 time with the way the script keep unroll one thing after another i must admit that i do not hate this film and i have to credit the actor for that . everyone have at least one good scene somewhere in the film but i wish the story would have concentrate more on weaver and her character than hirsch . weaver be exceptional and with a sharp script she could have have a role that maybe would have lead to an oscar nomination but instead we get endless scene of hirsch at party or his shenanigan with the neighbor next door . harris show he can be a good writer or director but with this effort he just throw so many different thing at the audience that the material just becomes labored and contrive .