Just watched on Netflix...awkward
This movie gets respectable scores on IMDB, but my wife and I found it awkwardly written and acted.
Mostly, it's the one-dimensional characters that undermine this movie. Examples:
i. With age comes maturity but the 'bad' guys here are still douchebags decades later, literally no different from their high school personas. It's reasonable to assume they would now be married with children of their own... at least marginally more sensitive to issues of bullying and harassment. Nope, not here. And they are police officers yet!
Even in high school, they seemed like characters lifted from a John Hughes 80s movie... leering like James Spader in Pretty in Pink.
ii. The parents are literally monsters who verbally berate and beat their kids. No reason is given for them to be this way other than to move the plot forward. You might as well put up a big sign with the word 'VILLAINOUS PLOT DEVICE' on it with an arrow pointing to them.
Sure such parents probably existed in decades past, but in these times, it's unlikely the kids wouldn't have been identified as at risk -- school, neighbours -- and removed from the home by social services. Unless the kids were literally being chained up at home, they probably would have taken action themselves to get out of the house... running away, going to authorities to show them bruises and welts, etc.
iii. The troubled sister becomes totally unhinged within a day or so after having survived decades in prison which, you would think, would have hardened her emotionally. (And, btw, no clemency or consideration for the constant abuse at the hands of their parents. Refer to my comments regarding bruises, welts and other clear signs of physical trauma...)
iii. The restaurant 'family' are such 'high-on-life' and perky types that they almost seem like members of some weird cult.
iv. Ventimiglia's open mike set can be described as perhaps mildly amusing at best, yet the bar audience is roaring with laughter. My own personal experience with standup comedy in bars is that the audience is usually too lubricated to follow long rambling philosophical discourses punctuated by the odd bit of humour.
Me, I'd give this a five at best... It really needed a defter script.