Movie Review: A Bag of Hammers

Directed by: Brian Crano

Starring: Jason Ritter, Jake Sandvig, and Rebecca Hall

Plot: Two juvenile best friends get by as low rate con artists and car thieves who find their way of life challenged when they meet a young boy wise beyond his years.

Review: 

Jason Ritter (Freddy vs Jason) and Jason Sandvig (Sky High) play roommates Ben and Alan respectively. They are partners in crime (literally) conning people out of their keys and stealing their cars to get chopped and shopped. They do this by posing as valets at a graveyard for unsuspecting mourners. The two of them are individually very funny and charming, and they also have the kind of chemistry that implies a strong history and lifelong friendship. This history becomes a really important element. As the film progresses, their personal and shared history is delivered to us in increments that feel organic. We are never bogged down with too much information. The feelings and emotions that these two go through when they revisit their past tells us all that we need to know. For instance, when they accidentally steal the car of Ben’s ex-girlfriend, they suck up their pride and return it. Of course, she (Amanda Seyfried in a very small role) is in the know and erupts on the two of them for years of anger.

When the two aren’t boosting cars, they are probably patronizing a diner where Mel, Alan’s sister, works. The diner is gimmicky, and Mel is forced to sing and dance before taking everyone’s order, a fact that Ben and Alan take great joy in torturing her over. She shares the sense of history and can keep up with their jabs and banter. The big difference is that she is happy to not look back at her past ever, while the other two love to hate it wearing it like a badge of honor.

This sense of history becomes so important because the movie itself is a coming of age story, but it is adults coming of age. With children, we just start at the beginning and watch them find their path. With these guys, they have already chosen their path, poorly due to their bad childhood, and now they are having that path challenged. The house that the two of them live in also has a guest house. They are currently renting the house to an unemployed single mother who just went through a messy divorce. She is finding it hard to get back on her feet after leaving her husband. She ends up leaving her son, Kelsey, alone for long periods of time trying to provide for him. Her best intentions go unnoticed when her messy homelife is brought to the attention of child services. At the same time, Kelsey makes a real bond with Ben and Alan, and they find themselves feeling responsible for this kid’s well-being. If I go any further with this, I would be spoiling too much, but I will say there are a number of melodramatic elements that threaten to spoil the comedic tone that they have built. Thankfully, they find a happy medium, and the two tones feed off each other.

The filmmakers just do not know how to end it. Right before the true ending, we are presented with a montage of a possible future. It is made up of things that are really nice and enjoyable and other things that are either cloying or groan-inducing. Nevertheless, when they faded back to the present day, I felt a feeling of disappointment that none of it was true. It ultimately felt moot when the story came back around to establish that montage as a possibility yet again and then sort of fizzled out.

Rating: 8/10