Natural Selection

Linda, a god fearing Christian woman (Rachael Harris) has been dealing with a problem with her husband for the last 25 years.  That's due to his extreme belief in the biblical passage about a man not spilling his "seed" in vain.  Since his wife cannot have children his interpretation is that they cannot ever be intimate.  Something the opening seem appears to demonstrate she has more trouble dealing with than he does.  One can only assume he avoids shellfish like the plague as well.  But it turns out that that her husband Abe (John Diehl) has another (ahem) outlet for his urges - he's been a regular at a local sperm bank.  During one of his donation sessions Abe suffers a stroke, landing him in the hospital and of course letting the cat out of the bag.  Linda (believing it to be Abe's dying request) soon after sets out on a quest to find and return with Rob's eldest son of this secret life.  After a bit of underhanded dealing she secures the name of the offspring and embarks on a road trip to find him.

Who she finds at her destination is likely not the model child she was hoping for.  On the run from the authorities he agrees to accompany Linda back - purely for selfish reasons.  That road trip, and Linda's personal spiritual growth as she sheds her cloistered existence makes up the rest of the film.  Natural Selection won both an audience and a jury award at SXSW where I hadn't had a chance to see it.  So I'll admit I was expecting absolutely great things when I sat down with a nearly full house at the Egyptian theater.  Overall, I liked the film - but the experience fell short of love.  Rachael Harris turned in a strong performance that brought a character to life that could easily be one-dimensional.  In fact the part I liked best about the film was how writer/director Robbie Pickering told a story that went for humor (and generally succeeded) without truly making fun of the beliefs of the religious folks in the film.  Even if I personally felt their actions and what drove them may be ridiculous I appreciated the respect shown - mainly because it made for a better film.

Some parts of the story arc are predictable - but for the performances and the mixing of humor and drama I'm glad I got a chance to see it.  I guess I never fully, completely became engaged enough in the plot line to put in in my top tier of choices for the past year - but unlikely to disappoint most viewers.  Equal to the film experience was the lively post screening Q&A with Rachael Harris and Mr. Pickering in attendance.  I got a decent amount of that session on video which is directly under the film's trailer below.  There are a few sections missing - so apologies for that.