You won't be disappointed!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

just watch it!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

No spoilers in this first paragraph. The story is narrated by Tom, who as a young adult is played by Peter berg. But the story begins when he is a young boy, right before dad (Peter Coyote) pulls up stakes out East and moves the family to Washington state to begin a new career. We find out later that it wasn't that simple. After Tom grows up and goes off to school, the story picks up again when he comes back home. Older brother Charley (Vince D'Onofrio) seemed particularly restless, and wanted to leave home, but for some unspoken reason couldn't, saying "It isn't that simple." We suspect some deep, dark secret resides withing him. Juliette Lewis who was only 18 plays little sis Cassie. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Marriet who becomes Tom's new girlfriend after he comes home. My wife and I found the story interesting and the acting good, but were both disappointed at the end. The movie brought many things to light, but with little back story to explain. In the end we were left more puzzled than satisfied.SPOILERS are in the remaining comments.Right before the family moves west we see Charley dancing with local pretty waitress Jennetta (Marg Helgenberger), then taking her outside. Young Tom (about 12 or so) sneaks around the corner to see them close, then brother Charley leaves in a huff. Tom goes to Jennetta to see what is wrong, she takes his head in her hands, and kisses him on the lips. Which he thought was great since he already had an infatuation with her. Then brother Charley comes back for him. Years later in Washington when the house burns down (we later find it was Charley as a way to leave), Tom is left a note with reference to a safe box, Charley had saved all dad's letters from Jennetta so they wouldn't burn, and wanted the two younger brothers to read them. Dad finds out, the boys go to burn the letters, embarrassed, the fire gets out of hand, younger brother Ask (Noah Wyle) chases down burning letters and gets run over, dies, later Charley comes home, the family is one big mess. In the end we see Tom and Marriet heading off to Berkely together. Dad had moved west years earlier as his only way to break off the affair with Jennetta. We never did find out why Charley felt he couldn't leave home.

I saw this film recently on cable and found it almost Shakespearean in its depiction of family trouble: fundamental character flaws or weaknesses leading to tragedy, pride keeping the truth from being known when it would be better to bring things out in the open, old secrets coming back to wreak havoc.It's not always an easy film to watch, because you want to stop certain things from happening. But every character is multi-dimensional and real, and - as in Shakespeare - there is humor in the story and hope for recovery and redemption in the end. I cared about these people and their situation.Slow going at times, but give it a chance - it lingers.

When a young man, Tom (Peter Berg), comes home to visit his family, he finds that since he has left the Warrens have become majorly disfunctional as a result of his father's hidden infidelity. His father, Edward (Peter Coyote), refuses to deal with these problems, going into denial and pretending that everything is fine. His older brother Charley (Vincent D'Onofrio) attempts to get kicked out of the family by causing emotional trouble, becoming violent, and he finally beats up Tom in the end, to no avail; Tom realizes that Edward won't throw Charley out because that would be letting him win.This is the sort of dark little film which is original and wonderfully written but too subdued and depressing to ever gain wider acceptance. The tale of a family's descent into mutual distrust and self pity is not something most people would be willing to watch, regardless of the quality of the work.Good directorial work and writing here. The performances are also all solid, especially D'Onofrio as the aggressive sociopath son and Noah Wyle as his brother Ask, such a riveting performance from a young Wyle. Take the time to watch this at least once if you see it on the movie channels. It's too extreme for many people to relate to, but it does keep you entertained, and it has a good, realistic ending.

This is a great movie. Great acting but, it gets a little long at some points, but, it is still is very touching. I have only cried while watching two movies and his was one of them. Great for fans of the genre, ****1/2 out of *****.