Sarah Megan Thomas and James Van Der Beek go for the gold in BACKWARDS
BACKWARDS (Ben Hickernell, 2012)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, September 21
212-924-3363
www.backwardsthemovie.com
www.cinemavillage.com
Inspired by the true story of the Olympic dreams of a college teammate, actress and former rower Sarah Megan Thomas wrote, produced, and stars in Backwards, perhaps the biggest movie about crew since Rob Lowe picked up the oars to impress Amanda Pays in the 1984 cult-classic-wannabe Oxford Blues. Unfortunately, however, Backwards comes off as a well-meaning but overly earnest vanity project that is more like a basic-cable, family-friendly movie-of-the-week than a feature film for theaters. Thomas plays Abi Brooks, a champion rower who might have just one last shot to make the Olympic team as her thirtieth birthday approaches. But after being selected as an alternate, a wining Abi quits, eventually getting a job coaching the girls’ rowing team back at her old school, where her boss is her high school sweetheart, Geoff (James Van Der Beek). Searching for meaning in her life, Abi gets deeply involved in training Hannah (Alexandra Metz) and Susan (Meredith Apfelbaum) for an upcoming important tournament, until circumstances change and she is forced to make a crucial decision about her future, and that of her girls. Directed by Ben Hickernell (Lebanon, PA.), Backwards was admittedly made on a too-low budget, and it shows. The rowing scenes don’t ring true, the potential romance between Geoff and Abi is predictable, and Abi’s relationship with her mother (Margaret Colin) is riddled with clichés. That said, the film does have a good heart that makes you want to like it, but it never quite reaches that next level, with scene after scene mired in the obvious.