When Nathaniel Williams in the first 20 minutes of a long one YouTube interviews Just as disturbing, detailed and visibly moved about an enormously traumatizing experience from his childhood, a stubborn audience quickly stays away. The American was already on his own in preschool age, with his grandparents and a Christian orphanage not being able to give him a real hold. This gap was only able to fill out Stan deen, an enormously committed high school teacher, who not only taught the teenager, but also promoted and had it pulled in. The pedagogue died in 2016, and the believer Nathaniel Williams not only accepted his last name, but also founded a foundation that was committed to the formation and promotion of artistic talents among disadvantaged children and adolescents.
Director Damian Harris (“Gardens of the Night”) adapted this true (life) story after the autobiographical script template by Nathaniel Deen himself, who appears in a small role as an employee of an orphanage at the end of the film. “Brave the Dark” was performed on several US film festivals in 2023, but found no rental for a long time until the Angel Studios, which specializes in Christian and faith-based content, acquired the rights to the drama, which is now still internationally in cinemas at two years. The independent production scores with two strongly acting main actors, but can rarely really be able to touch due to a lot of dramaturgical idle.
To the outside, the 17-year-old student Nathaniel “Nate” Williams (Nicholas Hamilton) is perfect-but in fact he doesn't even have a permanent residence!
1986 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: 17-year-old Nathaniel “Nate” Williams (Nicholas Hamilton) is an ace in sprint on the Garden Spot High School and has also found an attractive friend with Tina (Sasha Bhasin). After he is caught in a break -in and ends up in jail, it comes out that the boy lives precariously in his car without a permanent residence. The committed English and theater teacher Stan Deen (Jared Harris) takes the slightly startled teenager from the college under his wing despite the headwind, also lets him move in at home. But the WG has plenty of conflict potential because Nate nibbles on a strong trauma that is never overcome …
Even if the figure remains somewhat flat in its consistently good beings: With fine irony but great gestures, Jared Harris (“Morbius”) credibly embodies an educator who – like the figure of John Keating embodied by Robin Williams in “The Club of Dead Poets” (1989) – lives his profession and believes in the talents of his students. A scene under the Christmas tree is particularly funny when the Stan, dressed in the ugliest Christmas house suit, can be given a played surprise by the overwhelmed Nate with its own present.
The inner life of the figures remains a mystery
However, such hearty moments are rare, also and precisely because Nicholas Hamilton (“Captain Fantastic”) realistically creates his teen-delinquent, but also as a locked, optionally grim or carelessly looking bundle of nerve with a short cord-especially if he tried to recapture his alienated friend Tina after a piece of school theater. This is disappointed, however, precisely because Harris and Hamilton are extremely striving for: the interior of both figures remains puzzling under tentative hints, NATE's internal demons largely disguised.
The story itself is bobbing between small progress from Nate to a regular life and declining conflicts, for example, if he deliberately misses an important appointment because he makes wild party with his false buddy Johnny (Will Price), long pretty drock, not very productive and also tough. Only in the end do the flashbacks previously standing for the history of a trauma, which is then reconstructed and moved deeply with every detail of its creepy history.
The committed teacher Stan Deen (Jared Harris) takes Nate under his wing.
Until then, Damian Harris rarely rarely scored out from his visually staging. Above all, a scene in which he uses the (musical) 80s color of the time remains in the memory: The unleashed Nate dances to a dreamy “Space Age Love Song” by a Flock of Seagull in a fleeting magical moment in the forthruit of a stage-until the approaching theater force gets back to reality. It shows that a little more flair for atmosphere and strong pictures would have done the sometimes weak -looking drama.
Conclusion: The actual childhood of Nathaniel Williams alias Nathaniel Deen was extremely blatant. “Brave the Dark” makes it a solidly played, but largely staged and aqueous drama, which lacks emotional and psychological depth.