The Silent Thief

Starring: Toby Hemingway, Cody Longo, John Billingsly, & Frances Fisher

Director: Jennifer Cleary - Rating: NR - Score: 2 Stars

Here we have yet another example of a terrific performance wasted in an absolutely terrible film. I don't understand why certain actors continue to under value themselves and take on roles like this one. Toby Hemingway gives a tremendous performance as Brennan, a drifter who rents a room in the Henderson household. At first he seems like a normal young guy, looking for a place to stay, until it become apparent that he is obsessed with their son, Mike (Cody Longo). That's when this film turns into some strange homoerotic version of Cape Fear, but not really, because the catch is, Mike is away at college and while he's there, Brennan is hanging out with his best friend and hooking up with his little sister. Is Brennan actually gay? Does he want Mike? His life? His family? No one knows because nothing is explained! All we ever see in this film are Brennan's current actions and out of context they make absolutely no sense. This isn't one of these films where it all comes together in the end either, it just keeps getting more bizarre, but at the center of it all is Toby Hemingway. He seems to always show up to take his cloths off in bad movies, but the fact is that he's more than that guy. The part of Brennan required a wide range of emotions to be believable and Hemingway pulled it off. The only reason I even made it to the end of this awful movie was because I enjoyed his performance and was curious to see where he'd go next. It's honestly a shame that it was wasted though on just another badly written story that I guess made sense to someone.