Trevor Hawkins’ impressive first feature is as lush and laconic as the sunsets from the sailboat that Forrest (Todd Blubaugh) calls home. He’s a handsome hipster who’s dropped out of the rat race to live off some savings as he enjoys the good life on Missouri’s scenic Lake Lotawana.
When he meets an equally free spirited young woman, Everly (Nicola Collie), a dancer with an Aussie accent who’s estranged from her parents, the film becomes a romance as the pair soon fall in love. Hawkins shoots the blossoming relationship with a sharp eye and a feel for the rhythms of the seasons. The couple stroll in sun-dappled woods, bundle up against a snowy afternoon and watch as morning mist rolls across the lake with Hawkins’s photography aided by Ryan Pinkston’s delicate soundtrack. There’s an easy, seemingly improvisational rapport between the two likable leads as Forrest teaches Everly to sail and to fish.
But their romanic idyll is upended by an unexpected, somber event that Hawkins handles with sensitivity. Faced with a strain on their relationship and ever present financial struggles, Everly breaks into an empty lakefront house seeking something more elusive, more personal than money or expensive objects. There’s a tense and poignant scene as Forrest, against his better judgment, accompanies an increasingly risk-taking Everly back to the house. A sudden and powerful jolt pulls “Lotawana” in a shocking new direction. But Hawkins, who wrote, directed, shot, edited and financed the film himself, never loses control of his leisurely paced and beautifully shot labor of love.
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