Chris (Jay Duplass) is finally coming home after twenty years in prison, and, as he tells his brother Ted (Ben Schwartz), “It’s weird.” He was still a teenager when he got caught up in a crime that spiraled out of control and ended up doing the time for his friends, who left him to take the rap alone. Even if the world has made a few technological and societal leaps in the decades he’s been away, the small town of Granite Falls, Washington hasn’t changed all that much.
His welcome home party is mostly filled with faces who didn’t bother to stay in touch while Chris was behind bars, but there’s one person he’s genuinely pleased to see — Carol (Edie Falco). Known to Chris as Mrs. Beasley, his high school teacher never gave up on her student, and eventually coordinated his release by working his case with the volunteer advocacy group, End Mandatory Minimums. The pair forged a tight bond in the two years it took to earn his freedom and, now that he’s out, neither is quite certain how to let go. Or even if they want to.
While the setup could be more charged in someone else’s hands, “Outside In,” co-written by Duplass and director Lynn Shelton, moves with the unhurried rhythms of its setting and characters. Finished with her work on Chris’ case, Carol now has to return to facing the problems in her own life. Her marriage to Tom (Charles Leggett) is passionless, and not just because he suffers from erectile dysfunction. Sleeping in separate beds, they’ve long since settled into an uneasy, but routine funk, unable to maintain any kind of civil conversation for very long. Meanwhile, their daughter Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever) has grown distant, staying both emotionally and physically removed from a household that is brimming with tension. As for Chris: he might be out in the world again, but he’s in a prison of a different kind. His parole conditions mean he still can’t enjoy a beer, finding work as an ex-con proves difficult, and the small circle of friends he had before he went to prison has moved on. It’s only natural that Chris and Carol, both adrift, eventually return to each other’s orbit.
“Outside In” is not a story filled with events or even big moments, but, instead, accumulates its momentum through the numerous small decisions that eventually bring our leads to a hard won understanding. Until that time, Ted and Carol remain tentatively connected; reaching out and drawing back, uncertain about how to define their friendship….or is it a relationship? Shelton and Duplass are less concerned with the May-December element that stands between Ted and Carol, so much as the closeness they undeniably share. Both are isolated in almost every other aspect of their lives, and yet maintaining the bond between them could irrevocably destroy those lives, too — particularly for Carol, who has both her personal and professional standing to consider.
Shelton and Duplass have made careers out of finding the complexities within everyday, ordinary characters, and it’s arguable that pair have never been better than with “Outside In,” their first creative collaboration (the pair previously appeared together in Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig’s “Nights And Weekends,” and Duplass produced Colin Trevorrow’s “Safety Not Guaranteed,” which featured Shelton in a small role). The film’s dramatic conflict and tension is built with patient precision. We genuinely are concerned if Chris, in his boredom or loneliness, will break the conditions of his parole. We wonder if Carol, long doing the “right thing” by staying in her marriage, will do something reckless for herself. Where they each wind up is unexpected, but rooted in motivations that feel authentic for the journey we’ve joined them on.
Undoubtedly working from a modest budget, “Outside In” won’t win anyone over on its technical merits, but the moving intimacy it conjures is due entirely to the veteran talent on hand. Duplass and Falco are unshowy yet impressive in their performances; “chemistry” would be underselling how easy they make Chris and Carol kindred spirits, while the script affords them the opportunity to create these characters at a particular moment in their lives, without marrying them to any kind of traditional arc. The result is picture that slowly seeps into the skin, like the damp northwestern rain, yet leaves you warm, as you linger over the future Chris and Carol will face, hoping that splinters of the outside world will leave their fragile insides unharmed. [B+]
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