The Tattered & the Torn

D.W. Dillon

Las Vegas, NV

"The Tattered & the Torn"

Directed by Steve McQueen

Written by Alvin Sargent and Steve McQueen

Inspired by the article "The Silent Twins" by Marjorie Wallace

Cinematography by Chris Menges

Edited by Gerry Hambling

Music by Paul Cantelon

Principal Cast:

Keisha Castle-Hughes as Jaclyn Gallagher

Q'orianka Kilcher as Jennica Gallagher

Stephen Dillane as Aubrey Gallagher

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gloria Gallagher

Noah Fleiss as Preston Raines

Logan Marshall-Green as Kevin Loach

Tagline: "Her war, their life."

Synopsis:

Jaclyn (Kiesha Castle-Hughes) and Jennica (Q'orianka Kilcher) Gallagher were once tested to genius levels in school. Jennifer, having battled with a severe speech impediment at an early age refused to speak out embarrassment after being continually picked on. Her loving sister Jaclyn took a vow of silence in her honor. The two inseparable outcasts would form their own language that gave them a bond stronger than the ignorant world around them. Using the smallest of gestures, they would communicate the largest of feelings. With even their parents Aubrey (Stephen Dillane) and Gloria (Catherine Zeta-Jones) at a loss, the sisters would only rely on their deep connection to push them past the discrimination that the world betrothed. Teachers found the bitter Jennica to personify evil while taking her trepid sister Jaclyn down with her. Amidst their solace, they would write poetry ahead of their time of odd romances and exotic life in California, only to gain moderate fame in local poetry circles of 1970's New York City. And moderate was the only constant in their life. While their ambitions fell through, so did any romantic relationship they tried to form. Local military brats Preston Raines (Logan Marshall-Green) and Kevin Loach (Noah Fleiss) who more than took advantage of them physically and mentally. Screaming on the inside, no one could hear their pleas as Jaclyn and Jennica disco danced with the rapists. Jaclyn would follow the troubled Jennica into a life of petty crime soon after; from stealing collection plates from churches to armed robbery. Jennica released the vengeance inside, and Jaclyn was along for the ride while struggling to break away from her sister.

The ride would come to a blistering halt. After their arrest for arson, Jaclyn was back home in the comforts of her parents, while Jennica was cast aside. Disowned by her father, the streets of New York was her home now, where drugs dared her to speak, and vagrants dared her to live. Aubrey Gallagher was a man of little patience but a stubborn man as well, and he would not stand for his good name to be tarnished while his wife cried herself to sleep. He scoured the nights looking for his troubled daughter in what was known as the suicide alleyways where people give up on life. Though when he found Jennica, she would turn the knife in him as if he was just another potser. Nobody knew for sure if Jennica knew it was him.

As she inhaled anxiety, Jennica developed a deep form of depression to an almost catatonic state inside padded walls and doors with bars and her sister miles away, was crying on the inside to be free. Free to speak. Free to live. The mere sight of either daughter brought their mother, Gloria to tears so much so she couldn't bare her presence and left Jaclyn to fend for herself.

Before she was to embark on the world alone, Jaclyn paid one last visit to her sister where she pleaded to her for an answer to all their problems. They spoke with their eyes and hands through the glass divider, their faces flooded with tears when Jaclyn left. In the asylum where many lives have lost their way, Jennica found the words of freedom for her sister and she scratched her goodbye poem for Jaclyn on the prison cell wall, followed by her last breath.

10 years later - Malibu, California - Jaclyn calls out loud from the back porch of her beach house to her daughter Jen, who is building a sand castle on the beach. She hears her daughter's innocent and beautiful voice and looks over the pacific ocean and listens to the crashing waves engulfing each other in sunset.

What the Press Will Say?:

The film opens to a mother lovingly rocking her two crying infant daughters to sleep with music of Gavin Friday in the background and his original song "Hikikomori". A title that in Japanese means social withdrawal. A lullaby that foresees what is to come in this heartbreaking tale of a strong bond between two sisters, one troubled due to a speech impediment and the other conflicting. Their vow of silence brings them closer together, yet further way from society. From the harassment by school bullies in High School to their life of petty crime, sisters Jennica (Kilcher) and Jaclyn (Castle-Hughes) struggle for the kind of exotic life their write about in their poetry. Rising star director, Steve McQueen (no, not that one) teams up with writer Alvin Sargent to adapt Marjorie Wallace's famous article about the silent Welsh twins of the 1970's. McQueen sets his film in New York City, changing the atmosphere from Wales to the United States where an even greater prejudice lurks to break down his characters as much as possible. Proven what he can do with extreme emotional situations with his acclaimed film Hunger, McQueen shows the uncompromising yet conflicted character of Jaclyn to a sincere sympathetic light. She never gives up on her troubled sister Jennica even after they are raped and arrested. The sisters played by Keisha Castle-Hughes and Q'orianka Kilcher have a chemistry all to their own where in scene after scene they seem to be the only two in the world, no matter who is around them. Their hand and facial gestures, nods and eye rolls are sad at times, yet often playful and endearing. McQueen manages to shape the true story into a way that you whole-heartedly care for both sisters, regardless of their actions. At first we are struggling along with their parents played by a stringent Stephen Dillane and a doting mother played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, yet when they are both disowned, struggle with the sisters. A film from top to bottom that cares for it's audience. "The Tattered & the Torn" is a film that marks the beauty of an unbreakable bond and sacrifices and chances we take to keep that bond together.

FYC:

Best Picture

Best Director - Steve McQueen

Best Actress - Q'orianka Kilcher

Best Actress - Keisha Castle-Hughes

Best Supporting Actor - Stephen Dillane

Best Supporting Actress - Catherine Zeta-Jones

Best Original Screenplay - Alvin Sargent and Steve McQueen

Best Score - Paul Cantelon

Best Original Song - "Hikikomori" by Gavin Friday

Best Cinematography - Chris Menges

Best Sound Editing - Ron Davis