[yasr_overall_rating]
Broken, desperate men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields where a local Pastor risks everything to help them.
In the small town of Williston, North Dakota, hydraulic fracturing has unlocked an enormous oil field and oil drilling in the region has literally exploded. North Dakota leads the nation in economic growth and every year, thousands of Americans head to this small town with high hopes of finding a good-paying job. Many though, once they arrive, have nowhere to sleep except in their cars and while it is illegal to sleep in your car there anywhere, if someone offers you space to park so you can sleep, then everything is good. The problem is, the people of Williston are not very approachable to outsiders, especially the people they label ‘overnighters’, people who seemingly pass through their town on their way to better things.
Enter Jay Reinke, a local pastor who runs the neighborhood Lutheran church and has more than enough floor space in his church building and opens it up to these displaced men and women and when the church is full, he gives permission to those who have their own transportation, permission to sleep in their cars in the church parking lot. He is indeed a blessing for those who are genuinely seeking accommodation until they get on their feet. Throughout the film, we meet many different people, a young man who has traveled here from Wisconsin as there is no work in his small town back home and once he attains a good-paying job, he ends up having to leave as his girlfriend complains that he is not at home, taking care of her.
We also find out that many of these men are harboring dark secrets. While some have had run-ins with the law, some are ex-felons convicted of serious crimes and when the local newspaper finds out that several of them are sex offenders, they run a list in their periodical of all the sex offenders and naturally, this does not sit well with the locals who have served their church for many years. The movie is heartbreaking as we meet many people who have had troubled pasts but are trying to rectify their lives and move positively forward and the movie’s message, is how we all deserve second chances. And who doesn’t? None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes.
As the film nears its finale, pastor Jay lays a bombshell on his wife of many years, that he has struggled with same-sex attraction and that he committed adultery. The movie starts off very positively and optimistically and very slowly, segues into betrayal, dishonesty and deception. Jay eventually resigns from his position as the town’s pastor and the locals vote to stop the church opening its doors to the overnighters. By the movie’s end, we are left in a sort of limbo, having invested ourselves in this film and its stories and the people throughout, not knowing what will become of them and while pastor Jay has no idea where he will go from here, we genuinely feel sympathy for a man who helped countless others when nobody else would even look at them.
Director Jesse Moss tackles, with great aplomb, a subject matter that affects each and every one of us, in some form or another. We’ve all been without jobs at some point in our lives, we’ve all fallen down and made mistakes and had to get back up again but for many, there wasn’t always the understanding and forgiveness of loved ones around to help us carry on but with Pastor Jay, in spite of his personal imperfections, he always managed to smile and welcome anybody who walked through his front door and make them feel like they were at home. And in today’s day and age, there are not many people like him. Highly recommended.
In select theaters in Los Angeles October 31st
