-Written by Marty Coney.
Goldilocks and the Two Bears is a story about two drifters, Ian (Bryan Mittelstadt) and Ingrid (Serra Naiman), who strike up an unlikely friendship with a young woman, Ivy (Claire Milligan), and affect the course of their lives. It is Writer and Director Jeff Lipsky’s eighth feature film.
The Goldilocks and the Two Bears opens with Ian and Ingrid looking for a place to stay. They find an apartment and break in, they are shocked to find the electricity works and the water is running. They soon strip naked so they can have a shower and wash their clothes before trying to get some sleep.
We then see Ivy driving to her grandmother's new apartment; when she gets there the door is unlocked. Nervous, she enters to find Ian and Ingrid asleep. Frightened, she leaves to ring the police. She stops short of dialing the number and re-enters the apartment to find Ingrid awake, they start to talk and decide to go for a walk to get to know each other.
The young women soon develop a deep bond over their childhood experiences. We learn that Ivy is the only survivor of a car crash that killed her entire family and she lives with her grandmother who bought the apartment so Ivy and her could start over. Ingrid ran away from home due to pressure from her successful family, and while hitchhiking she met Ian, a philosophy student who was driving to Vegas to become a teacher. Along their journey to Vegas Ian and Ingrid become addicted to heroin and Ingrid is infected by HIV; Ian does everything he can to help Ingrid and keep her safe, even though they are both addicted to drugs and have little to no money.
A romance soon develops between Ivy and Ingrid which ends as quickly as it started. I thought the romance was going to lead to a love triangle but it was dropped after one scene. Ian tells how he became interested in philosophy and how his grandfather Lou was a great storyteller and ingrained in him a love of reading, learning, and telling stories.
Goldilocks and the Two Bears is very dialogue heavy and it's eerily quiet with not a lot of background noise or music. The three main cast members are making their acting debuts and they do a good job delivering their lines. Well enough that you wouldn't believe it was their first time on screen, especially Naiman who is excellent throughout.
The third act is where Goldilocks and the Two Bears falls flat for me. I won't spoil the ending of the movie, but how quickly the tone shifts at the end was a bit out of left field. How quickly the mood shifts between the three characters, when two minutes earlier they were planning on staying together.
All in all I think this movie was well told with a well directed cast, and I would watch it again for Naiman’s performance alone.
Written & Directed by Jeff Lipsky.
Starring Bryan Mittlestadt, Serra Naiman, Claire Milligan, etc.
6/10 = WATCH IT FOR FREE
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