Craig Robinson almost singlehandedly saves this well-meaning drama with a climactic parenting speech that I like to think, on my very best days, I’d be capable of coming somewhat close to giving as a dad. Robinson plays Curtis Gentry, an American soccer coach working and living in Heidelberg, Germany, with his 13-year-old son Morris (Markees Christmas). They’re fish out of water, to say the least, and for most of Morris from America, this plays like a construct imposed upon inauthentic characters, rather than an organic, attuned narrative. Heidelberg, for instance, never registers as a genuine place; there’s an airlessness to the scenes, so that they seem as if they could be happening anywhere. The plot turns on unconvincingly staged contrivances (particularly in regards to the bullies Morris faces), while the magical-realist flashes—as when Morris visits a museum while wearing ear buds and the patrons, statues and even stained-glass figures start bopping their heads to the beat—come out of nowhere, and lead to nothing. Still, writer-director Chad Hartigan (This is Martin Bonner) hits upon a few moments of genuine vulnerability (particularly when Curtis discovers a porn magazine Morris has been hiding) and also coaxes a performance from Robinson that oozes with unforced honesty. The aforementioned soliloquy, captured mostly in a single take, opens up a space in which two people who were close before this moment are able to finally, truly become father and son.
