Asleep in My Palm

February 29th, 2024

MOVIE: ASLEEP IN MY PALM

STARRING: TIM BLAKE NELSON, CHLOE KERWIN, JARED ABRAHAMSON

DIRECTED BY: HENRY NELSON

AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 3 ½ STARS (Out of 4)

Asleep in My Palm is the feature writing and directorial debut of Henry Nelson. He is the son of legendary actor Tim Blake Nelson and what you instantly notice is that this is a real filmmaker. One can often become jaded about nepotism with cinema, but when the proof is in the pudding, the conversation is instantly squashed. His first film is a tried and true independent film. A story about people who live on the fringes of life. Asleep in My Palm is a spectacular human story and an even better debut.

The story begins at a storage unit, somewhere in a rural Ohio town, right next to a small liberal arts college, and a cold snowy day. This dwelling has been turned into the home of Tom (Tim Blake Nelson) and his daughter Beth Anne (Chloë Kerwin). It is tight quarters, with two cots, darkly lit, but this is their life. While Beth Anne sleeps at home, Tom walks over to the school, proceeding to use bolt cutters to remove bikes, with hopes of making a profit on reselling them. They are a pair that lives off the grid, surviving day by day, but it’s the only life that Beth Anne has known, and soon the isolation begins to crack.

Aesthetically and visually, Asleep in My Palm captures the reality of these lives. I was reminded of other great independent films, such as Never Rarely Sometimes Always or what Sean Baker did with Tangerine. It’s incredibly hard to make a story this gloomy shine. These are lonely characters who have had struggles. What Henry Nelson does so well is set the stage. This is the universe they live in, where they sneak into the college to shower, scrounge enough cash to eat a sandwich, or waste time at the local park. What hovers in the air of every moment is a wondering if this is the life they should be living.

What truly makes the story and dialogue work are the performances from Tim Blake Nelson and Chloë Kerwin. The character of Tom is quite real. A veteran of the Vietnam War, where he preaches to Beth Anne about how religion and technology have become the destruction of the world. Tim’s face is always incredibly unique and yet he portrays something so honest and human that we fail to recognize him at all. What Kerwin does is just as good, as she goes toe-to-toe with a veteran, while her subplot becomes heartbreaking. She’s a teenager that hasn’t lived outside her space and as outside forces penetrate, she begins to see that she knows very little about what the world has to offer.

Asleep in My Palm captures the very spirit of independent filmmaking. Henry Nelson is wise beyond his years and has made a film that displays a section of the world that we walk with. It shows the dark side of family, how we may not truly know the people we love, how we survive with the cards we are dealt, and how that survival can shape our futures. Asleep in My Palm will touch a nerve at the center of your heart.

ASLEEP IN MY PALM IS PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS ON FRIDAY MARCH 1ST, 2024.

3 ½ STARS

Written by: Leo Brady
leo@amvoieguy.com