"Walking on the Sky" is obviously a very personal movie, and writer/director/star Carl T. Evans tells this tale with passion and sincerity to spare. Yet he runs into the same problem that afflicts so many first-time filmmakers who explore this single-minded, character driven territory -- in short, the material is so personal that it just comes off gratingly esoteric and insular. Loaded with moments so confessional they actually cause the viewer discomfort, "Walking on the Sky" is another classic example of a well-intentioned idea in desperate need of a stronger vehicle for expression.

Set in Manhattan, six friends congregate when they learn of their pal Josh's (Michael Knowles) suicide. Seeking answers to explain the tragedy, they find Josh's diary and, after some trepidation, decide to each take turns reading passages aloud to the group. As secrets are revealed, and excessive amounts of alcohol consumed, the relationships between various members of the clan are tested, as they all come to see each other, and themselves, in a new light.

The film's set-up, quite frankly, feels phony. This group of friends, all in their early 30s, appears as if they could only exist in a movie or television series. There is Sara (Susan Misner), Josh's ex-girlfriend, who was dumped by the man when they were engaged; the kind hearted and selfless Joann (Kristen Marie Holly); the upwardly mobile, yuppie couple, Jim and Liz (Chris Henry Coffey and Nicole Fonarow); ill-tempered Minor League Baseball player Nick (Randall Batinkoff); and, finally, the requisite despondent, down-on-his-luck drifter Dylan (Evans, who gives himself the meatiest role). I can buy that this circle of cronies existed in college, but nearly a decade later, it's infinitely more plausible to imagine they would've drifted apart.

Even though the film is lacking in the story department, for the first hour Evans is mostly able to keep your interest (although visually, his direction is purely pedestrian), steering the narrative like a prolonged episode of a primetime soap opera. Little dramas, fueled by the revelations in Josh's diary, are played out in front of the group and, although it suffers from awkwardly staged scenes, the movie's first two thirds are paced swiftly. But it's the final half hour where the proceedings slow to a crawl. A scene that finds the friends heading to a local dive bar and partaking in an impromptu Karaoke session is silly and completely unnecessary. And with a tiny bit of fact checking, Evans could have discovered that Bachman-Turner Overdrive's hit "Takin' Care of Business" was certainly not an '80's song, like the characters claim.

Perhaps more than anything else, the movie's biggest flaw is that it's really not about how these friends deal with the loss of their friend. Instead, it much more concerns how they deal with their own interpersonal problems, often to the extent that you forget the film's premise is built on Josh's death. To be really harsh, you could assert that these characters are all too petty to truly show remorse over their friend's suicide. (Even at one's most diplomatic, possibly the only marginally favorable thing to say is that none of them are truly dislikable.) Somewhere along the line, writer/director Evans lost sight of what this film's focus should have been.

Attend any American film festival, and you're bound to come across a handful of indistinguishable movies just like "Walking on the Sky." Self-absorbed and never coming close to reaching the dramatic heights it so obviously aspires to attain, Carl T. Evans directorial debut winds up another -- to put it kindly -- faceless indie drama.

Warren Curry

Related links:
IMDB: Walking on the Sky (2005)