LEBANON PA: a big screen canvas but a small screen painter

Writer-director Ben Hickernell's 2010 LEBANON, PA uncomfortably straddles the line between serious drama and Hallmark movie of the week. It wants to be the former but is too often the latter, and makes it all too easy to forget that this is a film shot for cinema release not cable tv.

The story is typical movie of the week fodder - a man at a crossroads in his career and personal life who travels from his own environment to somewhere close to the polar opposite and finds himself - sometimes reluctantly - involved in the lives of others and confronting (also sometimes reluctantly) serious issues of life, love and happiness. At the end of it all he has a better idea of who he is, has affected change in some of those he's encountered in his journey, and has got his 

head in a place where it seems appropriate to drive off into the future.

Josh Hopkins is Will, the mid 30s Philadelphia advertising executive to whom all of the above happens.The trigger is the death of his estranged father, shortly after his long term girlfriend walks out on him. Will makes the drive west from Philly to Lebanon to arrange his dad's funeral and clear out his house. It's just a 2 hour journey into the heartland of Pennsylvania, but for Will it's like a voyage into the unknown, from the vibrant, bustling and most 21st century big city to a quiet, rural small town seemingly still mired in the 1950s. He's initially charmed by the slow-paced allure and friendly locals but soon discovers the downsides to living in an environment where everyone knows everyone else's business. He learns these unpleasant realities through his friendship with the teenage daughter (Rachel Kitson) of his neighbour who confides in him that she's pregnant, and his burgeoning relationship with local schoolteacher Vicki (Samantha Mathis), who also happens to be married.
The film really has nothing new to say about these entanglements nor the culture clash that occurs when big city meets small town, and neither the cast nor the director have the skill to avoid playing them out in an emotionally manipulative style reminiscent of the aforementioned Hallmark movie of the week. This unwelcome sensation is enhanced by excessive lighting which makes most scenes appear too bright and too glossy. I'm all for presenting small-town Pennsylvania in an attractive light (Lebanon is less than 140 miles from my adopted hometown of Lock Haven, PA) but for all its charm I know its never that shiny.
LEBANON PA's early promise of having something worthwhile to say about life, death and the whole damn thing but yields too soon to a story that's formulaic and unrewarding. You'll come to be entranced and (may) stay to be disappointed.