Ed Axenbould holds this together quite well as the teenage "Joe". His day to day life is thrown into turmoil when his father "Jerry" (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets laid off. Struggling to make ends meet with his wife "Jeanette" (Carey Mulligan) he decides to take a job some way away, a decision that leaves his wife feeling abandoned. The youngster must now cope with his mother's creative methods of dealing with the stresses and strains whilst reconciling his own feelings about both her and his absentee dad, of whom he is really fond. To be fair, not a great deal actually happens here - it is really just a delicately written observation on how relationships struggle once the family bedrock is compromised. Axenbould gives quite an assured performance (though an hair stylist is definitely in order), as does Mulligan and her wealthier friend Bill Camp ("Miller") - a man of whose motives we are never quite sure. The small town mentality is exposed, sure, but so is the distinct lack of opportunities; and as the couple split for purely practical reasons, the story makes us realise just how precarious many an otherwise robust relationship might be when put under such pressures. As usual, Gyllenhaal offers little here, but the other two deliver well.
