‘Asleep In My Palm’ Review – Poignant And Potent Musings On Family, Isolation And Life

Asleep in My Palm is a daring story about loneliness. It explores parenting and class fissures in American society. Poignant on the one hand and potent on the other. It is a story about a father and daughter living off the grid. Shrouded in mystery and fueled by anger at the system, the film dissects the nature of family and independence. The film takes a quasi-documentary vantage of an experience that is all too real. It is much less about a living situation between a father and daughter, as it expresses the human condition. It is a multi-layered tragedy that weaves a compelling narrative and finishes with an ending audiences will debate.

The movie introduces father and daughter Tom (Tim Blake Nelson) and Beth Anne (Chloë Kerwin). The twosome is living a life on the run. Also, living off the grid against the backdrop of a small liberal arts college, the two fight for survival while Tom tries to outrun his violent past. The film begins in media res as they live in a converted storage unit. Furthermore, the film is skinny on exposition and instead weaves in backstory through conversations mainly from Beth Anne. 

Fortunately, the characters of Tom and Beth Anne are strong, and the script is finely written, which establishes a lived-in world. The characters are three-dimensional and wear emotional scars like medals on the vest.

The most substantial arc of the film belongs to Beth Anne. She is introduced as a sheltered individual, living under the care of her erratic and doomsday prepper father. Her story is poignant and tragic. She does not understand the world, only from what her fearful father tells her. Trauma stemming from war and perhaps victimization defines Tom. Meanwhile, Beth Anne shows a willingness to adapt to her surroundings and rise above her sheltered situation. 

As an example of the script’s strength, Beth Anne delivers a passionate monologue about the loneliness of her life. She is on the cusp of adulthood and yearns for companionship. Moreover, these feelings express themselves through rebellion and sexual awakening. Arrested in adolescence, Beth Anne expresses a childlike wonder and anxiety frozen in time, watching the world pass her by every day. This is the film’s tragic underpinning. While this could have easily been a story about an outlander, it spotlights the plight of loneliness and isolation. Americans face loneliness on epidemic levels, and the film does not shy from these themes. In addition, their fractious home situation is set against the big world of a college. Everything and everyone to them seems larger by comparison.

Subsequently, Beth Anne bonds with a college student, Millah (Gus Birney), and it is through this pairing she undergoes a sexual awakening and discovers her thirst for independence. Birney plays a small but pivotal role in the film and helps spur Beth Anne’s journey. Conversely, she is someone of privilege, and the role offers an interesting commentary on the film’s themes and Beth Anne’s situation. 

Despite the fragility of their situation, Tom seems perfectly content with this fact. He blasts the capitalist system and cries foul at the lives of the elite and privileged. To Tom, home is wherever he makes it. Further, Nelson brings a weariness that is never overdramatic. He is stoic and, at times, passive-aggressive. On the other hand, Kerwin is the opposite. Her gentle curiosity of someone willing to listen to her father’s ways and teachings until reality says otherwise is the perfect counter.

Asleep in My Palm is shot on-location in Ohio, lending gritty credibility to the high stakes. Set against the backdrop of winter, this, too, adds to the film’s dissection of loneliness. A tapestry of complex emotions and societal themes also pairs well with the otherwise bleak exteriors and shadowy night shots

Firstly, the film is a character study, shifting between the perspectives of Tom and Beth Anne. Save for a handful of scenes, the two are on divergent storylines. Consequently, this enhances and complicates their lives. Secondly, the film blends the lines between truth and lies into an almost haunting nature. Thirdly, there is a shocking twist that may divide audiences, which, if taken at face value, changes the nature of the story into something inherently darker—consequently, the ending shifts between ambiguity and eternal optimism. 

The conclusion is jarring and will have people talking. Even the director, Henry Nelson, hopes the audience’s takeaway will stir debate. Ultimately, as it leaves more questions, there is a foreboding sense that is the film’s point. No answers. No backstory. Survival and endurance. Overall, Asleep in My Palm is vexing and frustrating but powerful and poignant.  

Asleep In My Palm will debut in select theaters on March 1, 2024, courtesy of Strike Back Studios. The film will be available on VOD platforms on March 19th. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRhT5-_YEHA]