Molly

Directed by John Duigan, Molly follows Elisabeth Shue’s profoundly autistic title character as she moves in with her brother (Aaron Eckhart’s Buck) in the wake of her institution’s closure. Filmmaker Duigan, armed with a script by Dick Christie, delivers an earnest yet perpetually tiresome drama that runs out of stream almost immediately, and there’s little doubt that the movie, which at least boasts some effective (and affecting) performances, is unable to become the powerful drama Duigan has obviously intended – with the arm’s-length vibe exacerbated by an often egregiously deliberate pace and recurring emphasis on digressions of a hopelessly underwhelming nature. And while the movie does contain a very small handful of compelling interludes, including some legitimately touching moments between Shue and Eckhart’s respective characters, Molly predominantly comes off as a well-meaning misfire that’s aged quite poorly in the years since its 1999 release.

*1/2 out of ****