Love From Ground Zero

Stephen Grynberg
USA, 1998, 102 mins
US Premiere

Producers: Aaron Cohen, Stephen Grynberg
Screenwriter: Stephen Grynberg
Director of Photography: Mauro Fiore
Editors: Melody London, Affonso Goncalves
Composer: John McEven
Principal cast: Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jacqueline McKenzie, Simon Baker Denny, James Gammon, Kathrynt Erbe.

When three strangers meet at the Manhattan funeral of Henry, a mutual friend, they are drawn together by an important task: a cross-country drive to Montana to dispose of his ashes. So begins this lovingly crafted drama of self-discovery. Samantha (Jacqueline McKenzie), Henry's girlfriend, is a street-smart woman who left home as a teenager. Eric (Simon Baker Denny) is a drifter barely holding a job in his family's printing business. Walter (Pruitt Taylor Vince), Henry's childhood friend, is a workaholic who reluctantly agrees to the journey. The slowly unfolding, increasingly intimate triangle, mixed with chance encounters along the way, form the core of this exquisite road movie. With its quiet revelations, expressive landscape photography, and intense yet gentle performances, Love From Ground Zero feels positively old-fashioned in its solid virtues. -David Schwartz