Scratching the Surface of the Seattle Film Festival

Uncovering the Seattle Film Festival's early gems, Jenna Fischer's "A Little Help" and the French thriller "Rapt."

During the post-screening Q & A for her new dramedy “A Little Help,” Jenna Fischer noted that there aren’t many scripts floating around “about women and not about a woman falling in love.”

Unlike Katherine Heigl, who Fischer went on to single out as “making a career out of that,” it’s taken somewhat longer for “The Office” star to transition to leading lady status on the big screen after making the most of supporting parts in smart, small-scale flicks like “The Promotion” and “Solitary Man.” That wait hasn’t been unrewarded.

In “A Little Help,” Fischer stars as Laura, a dental hygienist whose life only really starts when her husband (Chris O’Donnell) suffers a fatal form of arrhythmia and she’s left to rethink what’s she’s doing with her life. Far from the tempered ambition of Pam Beesley, Laura was never a go-getter and only casually strolled into adulthood by becoming a mother. (Laura’s parental instinct consists largely of trying to befriend her now 11-year-old son, with whom her most emotional exchanges come in the form of instant messages on her computer screen.)

While she isn’t fazed at all by her husband’s death — he may have been cheating on her before clutching his chest in agony — she is faced with several moral and practical dilemmas in his wake. Should she sue for medical malpractice, as her sister (Brooke Smith) insists?

Is it right for her to go along with her son’s lie that his father was a fireman who died in 9/11 to fit in at his new private school? Will she finally notice her brother-in-law (Rob Benedict) has pined for her since trying to get her attention in high school and still carries a torch despite marrying her sister?

If it sounds like Laura isn’t the only one overwhelmed by the choices presented to her in “King of Queens” creator Michael J. Weithorn’s directorial debut, “A Little Help” might not be your cup of tea. It did remind me of another film I greatly admired, last year’s “World’s Greatest Dad,” which embraced some melodramatic tropes to arrive at something genuine.

A few of “A Little Help”‘s characters are broadly drawn and certain scenes, especially the film’s set-up, seem forced, but Weithorn isn’t interested in easy answers for Laura’s many problems. He has a willing and able actress in Fischer to plumb the depths of a quarterlife panic in a delicate performance that doesn’t beg for your sympathy, but demands your attention. (In a funny but apt explanation of her character development, Fischer told the audience she studies reality TV for character traits and was inspired by “Survivor: Micronesia” winner Parvati Shallow when her sexy “whatever, whatevers” wear off.)

Of course, Weithorn’s good for a steady stream of sharp one-liners (one involving the musical legacy of Dion, who shows up in a cameo, is still ringing in my ears), yet “A Little Help” cuts to the quick in ways that are less expected and ultimately more moving. “A Little Help” doesn’t yet have distribution, but here’s hoping someone will take a chance on it.

Lucas Belvaux’s “Rapt” is also currently without U.S. distribution, but it could hardly seem more timely, tapping into the zeitgeist of the public’s heightened outrage at powerful businessmen while retaining the timeless intrigue of the very best thrillers. The Belgian Belvaux is a largely unknown filmmaker in America, perhaps better known as an actor in such films as the Oscar-nominated “Joyeux Noël.”

He did direct the ambitious “Trilogy” in 2002, using three films of different genres (comedy, melodrama and thriller) to tell the story of an escaped convict whose post-prison exploits cause ripples in the lives that he touches. That shifting focus is also central to “Rapt,” though Belvaux has clearly fine-tuned his methods for a shorter running time and more striking results.

Here, Yvan Attal stars as Stanislaw Graff, a French industrialist with government ties who’s at the top of the world until he is taken hostage by a group of rogue kidnappers. While he sits inside a guarded tent, deprived of food and shorn of his index finger for a ransom demand, his world falls apart outside. His family, his company and the local authorities debate the merits of giving in to the kidnappers as growing revelations about Graff’s private life come to light.

The film is a nailbiter to be sure, which is made even more evident when one of Graff’s colleagues identifies the finger that’s sent to the family by its chewed cuticle. But it’s also an uncommonly well-observed character study of Graff, whom we learn little about, other than a penchant for gambling and an interest in privacy, before he is taken.

It’s not only a surprise to the family, but the audience as well that the arrogance that served him well as a businessman led to more trouble than the €5,000 gambling debt we see him paying off in the opening minutes and worse, the damage it does to his image as the chief of a publicly traded company.

Details on Graff’s captors remain scarce, yet they’re largely irrelevant besides the fact that they’re asking for money Graff simply doesn’t have and they’re always one step ahead of the man’s negotiating team. There’s far more to be learned from the reactions of Graff’s wife (Anne Consigny), his domineering mother (Françoise Fabian) who’s less concerned with the fate of her son than the family’s fortune, and Graff’s longtime number two at the company (Andre Marcon) who seizes upon the unfortunate situation to solidify his own standing and keep the corporation above the truly treacherous business of involving itself in emotional affairs.

Belvaux is equally restrained in depicting the aftermath of the kidnapping — the only tears shed are by Graff’s teenage daughters, and not necessarily because their father is being tortured — making “Rapt” as intellectually satisfying as it is dramatically. He goes one step further when the resolution of one story allows the room for another, far more complex one to take hold. For a film that’s so steeped in our relationship with acquiring wealth, “Rapt”’s greatest quality is that it’s richly told.

It’s rare that I’m in the position of leaving a festival as soon as it starts, but for anyone who’ll be in the Seattle area for the next few weeks, there are plenty of films and events to look forward to. Edward Norton will be in town for a tribute on June 4th and a screening of his latest comedy “Leaves of Grass,” and the festival will conclude on June 13th with a gala screening of the Robert Duvall-Bill Murray Deep South sensation “Get Low,” although with nearly 20 possible options on weekdays alone, there’s plenty in the mean time.

And if you are around, please fill us in on what to see and even what not to in the comments section. While it was my first time at SIFF, it surely won’t be my last.

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