Least Among Saints

Earnestness combines with pedestrian filmmaking technique in Martin Papazian's well-meaning but amateur-feeling movie about a troubled ex-Marine who is redeemed through his paternalistic concern for an equally struggling young boy. Writer-director Papazian stars as Anthony, a hard-drinking suicidal vet who harasses his ex-wife and is constantly in hot water with the cops. When his next-door neighbor overdoses, Anthony not only rushes her—and her 10-year-old son, Wade (Tristan Lake Leabu)—to the hospital but he also agrees to take in the kid temporarily after it proves impossible to find a foster family. What follows is an increasingly unlikely series of episodes during which Anthony bonds with Wade, as the former teaches the latter how to handle the school bully before taking him on a road trip in search of his father (along the way instructing the boy on how to use a rifle). All of this serves as prelude to an even more implausible finale, involving the intervention of an incredibly indulgent social worker (Laura San Giacomo) and a supportive police chief (Charles S. Dutton). Least Among Saints strives to be gritty and truthful, but despite a superior turn from young Leabu, the film quickly descends into sentimentality and winds up coming across as both contrived and formulaic. Not a necessary purchase. (F. Swietek)