Definition Please (2020)

This indie film doesn’t always stick the landing, but I’m glad I had a chance to see it. I enjoy the premise, and the actors do a great job of creating the sense of history between the characters.

When Monica was a child, she won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. But while other champions have gone on to bright futures, she’s still living in her hometown, tutoring new would-be champs and taking care of her mom. When her brother Sonny comes back into town, the two siblings struggle to navigate their fraught relationship.

As I said, I really like the idea of a story centered around a spelling bee champ who hasn’t lived up to her potential. Monica’s huge early success sent her on a whirlwind of acclaim at a young age—she had a guest spot on an educational show hosted by LeVar Burton, she met Oprah and Hillary Clinton, etc. But while she’s just as smart and studious as she ever was, she hasn’t been able to translate that childhood accomplishment into present-day success. Personal issues within her family have gotten in the way, and she can’t bring herself to detach from her role as the person who holds everything else together.

The plot is a little wandering, which I suppose is fitting, since Monica is in a period of her life where she feels kind of drifting/directionless as well. But it can make the story drag at times, and there are a few too many repetitive scenes where the same goal is accomplished in slightly different ways. But the major beats are mostly strong—it’s just some of that connective tissue that could be tighter.

Where the movie excels most is in the relationship between Monica, Sonny, and their mom Jaya. The three have been through a lot—Sonny is coming home ahead of the anniversary of their dad’s death—and through brief flashbacks, we get little glimpses into the world that formed Monica and Sonny and contributed to bringing them where they are now. The story slowly teases out some of the wedges that have come between them, and we watch them contemplate whether they’d be able to get back to each other. Through it all, Jaya attempts to brute-force togetherness through a potent combination of optimism, appealing to their better natures, and parental guilt. All three actors have excellent familial chemistry and feel very natural in their interactions with each other.

Writer/director Sujata Day stars as Monica, a brainy townie who in some ways has been using her responsibilities to avoid making big choices for her own life. Ritesh Rajan does nice work as the boisterous but mercurial Sonny, and Anna Khaja is effective as Jaya. The film also features appearances from Jake Choi, Sonal Shah (who I remember from the later seasons of Scrubs,) and Lalaine (who, weirdly, I will always remember from playing one of the orphans in the 1999 TV movie version of Annie.)

Warnings

Thematic elements, violence (including off-screen child abuse,) sexual content/references, language, and drinking/drug use.