“Hi.” is the feature film debut from Director, Writer, and Producer Olivia Nash and is about trauma, forgiveness, and love—amongst other things. The film is an independent venture and takes place on Falmouth in Cape Cod. It has notes of independent films I’ve seen before—most notably “Skipping Stones” by S.J. Creazzo and “Stuck in Love,” starring Greg Kinnear. “Hi.” explores imperfect people—some struggling with mental health issues—and the chief takeaway is “it’s okay to not be okay.” Director Nash has a prominent role as Lavender Lark, a college student and burgeoning writer who comes home for the summer only to find her journey to forgiveness is only starting. The film’s bright spots are its empathy and its eagerness to have tough conversations. Its struggles, however, are its longer run-time and overstuffed narrative, which finds difficulty as the film winds to a close.
The film’s overstuffed nature is the result of the many characters it seeks to explore. Nash’s Lavender is clearly the film’s main character and the one with the biggest ark. She comes home, still harboring anger for her mother (Brandi Louck) for having an affair while her father was recovering from a bad car accident. Her father (Charles Edwin Powell) is lucky to be alive. He walks with a limp, struggles with memory issues, and fights to maintain the bakery he owns and keeping up with his painting. Despite his setbacks, he has the most positive outlook of the family. Alongside him, Lavender’s brother Daniel (Chase Pollack) struggles to deal with Lavender. He’s forgiven his mom and grows to resent why Lavender can’t do the same. There’s much healing begging to come out in “Hi.’s” thematics.
Real, Understandable Characters
The crux of the film from this point explores its characters’ pasts—including healing and hurt and a general feeling of listlessness—through conversations and people Lavender and Daniel meet along the way. Working a part-time job at a bookstore, Daniel meets the love of his life in a co-worker named Katie (Floriana Azemi), and Lavender meets a kindred spirit in Dylan (Paul Addison), who also works at the bookstore, a writer who’s just published his first book, “The Cynicism of Pollyanna.” It’s an ironic title, because Dylan is a hopeless romantic, burdened by taking care of his mentally-ill mother after his dad died in a painful suicide. Dylan puts on a strong face for a while, though cracks come through. I feel he bears the film’s greatest weight; meeting and spending time with him helps Lavender grow and heal.
As with most independent films, still, quiet conversations between “Hi.’s” characters make it what it is. Nash is a good actress, and it shows in her face amidst several scenes where she ignores her mother’s incessant phone calls from the road (she’s a writer too, and on a book tour). It also shows in her guarded nature as she tries her hardest not to let Dylan in, who obviously has romantic intentions for her. She’s afraid she’s going to hurt him like her mother hurt her father. It’s here I felt the film was strongest inspired by the aforementioned “Stuck in Love”—particularly Lily Collins’ character from that film—although Lavender’s true healing comes not with accepting love in her life, but in allowing herself to feel forgiveness, which sets it apart.
Some Overstuffing Muddles ‘Hi.’s’ Themes
Lavender’s path is set alongside Daniel’s, and Chase Pollack does as well as he can with the material. His arc, unfortunately, is to venture down heartbreak and risky choices, balancing being positive and sometimes too hard on Lavender along the way. He’s younger than Lavender; and while she’s resistant to let love in he welcomes it in the form of Katie. Katie, young and restless, is played sweetly by Floriana Azemi. Of the four (Lavender, Dylan, Daniel, and herself), she’s painted the most thin. She’s troubled, like the rest, and while the film uses her character to comment on the harm of substance abuse, I feel it could have given her more rounding and backstory along the way.
And it’s here that I felt the film—which is very sweet and empathetic—starts to struggle with the overstuffed nature of the script, which tries to juggle too many people and too many stories. Amidst its seaside beauty (the Cape remains one of my favorite places from my childhood), there’s simply too many characters explored to resolve them all. The film’s last 20 minutes also includes so many serious elements (alcohol abuse, depression, forgiveness, suicidality, and heartbreak) it struggles to tie them all up. Dylan’s arc seems the most rushed of them all. Grant does a great job and is one of the film’s best actors, yet the closing scenes felt incomplete. “Hi.’s” finale tries to pack in too much, and as a result takes away some of its punch.
Yet a Sweet Film with Sweet Characters
Yet there’s something sweet and doleful about Olivia Nash’s first feature. It’s hopeful, beautiful, loving, and kind. It watches easily and you really like the cast. At the end of the production, I wanted all of the film’s characters to be okay, and can envision them finding something this side of healing and moving on with brighter lives. One of Nash’s themes throughout is how writing is in itself is putting yourself out there and hoping someone will understand it, but being comfortable with the chance that they won’t. And while sometimes “Hi.” can be a touch too prosaic, its central themes of love, acceptance, and forgiveness shine through. The film lingers with you after the credits roll and the story makes you feel hope amidst the sadness. I’m eager to see what Nash will come up with next, and hope she sticks with heartfelt indies like this.
“Hi.” is currently available to watch on Prime Video and Apple TV through VOD. You can find out more information about the film at its official website here.
