Crying Out

This 2011 Seattle International Film Festival entry from Quebec starts with a very effective and unsettling incidence of child molestation. We can hear intermittent voices, but all we can see are fish swimming in the boy's aquarium; the rest is left to our imagination. Aarghhh!

We become acquainted with three men, a father, a son and a grandfather; all three are abusive and alcoholic.

• The grandfather, despite numerous one night stands over the years, now sorely misses his dead wife. He's hateful to the poor folks in the assisted living facility where he lives and convinces his grandson to take a road trip.
• The dad has just lost his young wife. He had abandoned his first family in order to marry her and to father two more children, but she has just died of cancer. He is inconsolable, digs up her corpse and takes it on a drunken road trip.
• The son has a job in a toilet paper/paper towel factory. He has an explosive temper and gets blotto every night. He fights in the alley while Grandpa sings "Among My Souvenirs" at a piano bar during their road trip.

Son and grandfather want to deliver a wake-up call to the recent widower and talk some sense into him. Would you believe this ends with a glimmer of hope? Yup. But just a glimmer....