Reviews

Steel City

A warm and fuzzy film

By PAUL BABIN | June 6, 2007

2.5 Stars

STEEL CITY: A prison-loving, family-values flick.

Brian Jun’s film owes more to the family values of the Reagan era than its anarchic characters and hardscrabble style would indicate. Although on the surface it seems hard-edged, at heart it’s warm and fuzzy. Tom Guiry evokes a fiery dyspepsia as P.J. Lee, whose world is torn apart when father Carl (John Heard) faces a seven-year prison sentence after killing a woman in a car crash. Everybody struggles with forgiveness in the most conventional of ways until the film ambles to the unrevelatory conclusion that Carl’s failures fragmented the family and that it’s up to dad to bring a new morning to America. But Heard is a profound sufferer — too bad Jun didn’t stay focused on Carl instead of milking all the other characters for pathos.

Topics: Reviews , Culture and Lifestyle, Family, John Heard, More

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