Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Ron Petrie (Keanu Reeves) is a teenager who has a police record and is a pariah in the apartment block where he lives with his mother. He falls in with a gang whose members are plotting to attack an elderly person, but backs out and returns home to face the justice system. Meanwhile, Ron's mother is behind on her rent and under pressure by a landlord (Sean McCann) who has more lust than scruples.This well-meaning drama from the National Film Board of Canada is weighted by wooden acting (although Reeves' wood is appropriate and McCann puts some life in his role) and a story which adds nothing fresh to the genre. Ron's encounter with the gang is tense at first, but soon becomes unconvincing. The resolution is especially weak. "One Step Away" is a minor part of Reeves' road to stardom.-Tony