ONCE UPON HER TIME // A FILM REVIEW OF "PRINCESS OF THE ROW"
It's rare that such heavy subjects as PTSD, homelessness, Veteran's Affairs, foster care, mental illness and poverty can coexist within a film and come out in one piece. It's even more rare that a single film can tackle all of these issues and not only come out breathing, but truly be an excellent film. PRINCESS OF THE ROW does exactly that. The film follows 14-year-old Alicia (Tayler Buck), a wiser than her years teen who has been tossed around the foster care system for years. She finds comfort by taking care of her mentally ill father Beaumont Willis (Edi Gathegi), an Iraq war veteran who returned to the states with a traumatic brain injury and a severe case of PTSD. He's now homeless, living on Skid Row in Los Angeles, and Alicia both strongly accepts being the unofficial caretaker of her father (who only remembers their past in brief moments) and longs for her father to attach himself back to reality and return to the days where he called her "Princess" and life was much brighter. Though he only occasionally remembers himself as the man he used to be, he always senses that Alicia is a good force around him and stays by her side, protecting her at all costs (His soldier muscle memory comes in handy more than once in several intense scenes).
Magdalene (Ana Ortiz) is a social worker who has been struggling to find Alicia a home. She truly cares about her and sympathizes with her regarding Beumont. Finally thinking that she's found a family that will stick (Martin Sheen and Jenny Gago), she breathes a sigh of relief, which is then matched with Alicia running back to her father and going on the lam to make sure they can stay together. The harsh realities of Alicia and Beaumont's lives never feel softened here and Director/Writer Van Maximilian Carson (along with his co-writer Alan Shawn Austin) keep a sense of being too precious far away from the story. Throughout the film, there's an appropriate amount of sentimentality set along the darkness, but it never overtakes the film. Instead, it ends up fitting perfectly into Alicia's grim fairy tale.
Young star Tayler Buck is fantastic as Alicia. Her face immediately seems like it's seen a million days more than she should have and has a troubled story for each one of them. It's an inspired and powerful performance and she perfectly connects to Edi Gathegi. Playing a mentally ill veteran who refuses to stay in shelters, Gathegi is tremendous, never overplaying a scene and shatters our hearts with a distant stare. You never stop rooting for them both and throughout its hopeful and longing final act, there's still the sense of dread, of no easy answers. It never loses the real complexity of this world and showcases how badly we have failed our Veterans, those with mental illness and PTSD. Alicia may believe she lives in a fairy tale, but her story is decidedly in the real world with a brilliant cast and assured direction. It's not the easiest pill to swallow, but it's an important one. We must see stories like this to be able to end stories like this. If we don't pay attention, how will we ever learn?
GRADE: A-
WRITTEN BY Alan Shawn Austin, Van Maximilian Carson DIRECTED BY Van Maximilian Carson STARRING Tayler Buck, Edi Gathegi, Ana Ortiz, Martin Sheen, Jenny Gago. Opening in Select Theatres and on VOD November 27th.