Film: “The Cathedral” directed by Ricky D’Ambrose

The opening line of “Anna Karenina” reads: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." You don’t have to wait very long to find out which type the Damrosches represent, in Ricky D’Ambrose’s semi-autobiographical film “The Cathedral.”

The film centers around young Jesse (Hudson McGuire), the child of an unhappy marriage in the late 1980s between Nick (Brian D’Arcy James) and Lydia (Monica Barbero). The family lives a lower middle-class existence in a fictional Long Island suburb. Nick by trade is a printer who is always in hock to shady characters and is looked down upon by his rich father-in-law (Mark Zeisler). Meanwhile, Lydia and her family have their own issues: e.g., her mother and her aunt are at serious odds over the treatment of Lydia’s grandmother.

The family tale moves chronologically through the 1990s and 2000s, time-marked by cuts to events such as Desert Storm, the explosion of TWA flight 800, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. Over the course of these events, Jesse is played by three different actors: Henry Glendon Walter V, Robert Levey II, and William Bednar-Carter, until the film stops abruptly in 2005.

In interviews with film magazines, D’Ambrose admitted to a chilly, “non-actor-y” approach to film-making. This is apparent from the get-go: the camera remains distant from his actors; there are few closeups, and the narration that moves the film along (at a snail’s pace btw) only sporadically explains what’s going on. Nor do we really find out what’s going on inside Jesse’s head as he grows up: does he have any interests? Any friends? Emotions? He is a sphinx without a mystery.

More specifically, if this is a movie, why don’t things move? The camera lingers interminably on objects like a glass shattered on the floor. Or on a photograph from Jesse’s childhood he analyzes as part of a film school project. In the end, we’re left with lots of long-drawn out scenes about a rather boring family.

Unhappy families like those in an O’Neill play usually make for interesting subjects. Conversely, happy families can be a curse: Christopher Plummer rued the day he ever appeared in “The Sound of Music.” But surely every family, happy or not, has some wisdom to impart. I’m still waiting for any from this film.

Note: “The Cathedral” is currently showing at the Bunin Movie Theater, Lincoln Center; it’s scheduled for wider release on September 9.