Sundance Review: WELCOME TO THE RILEYS

Jake Scott may only have 2 feature full length films to his credit but don’t let that fool you… this guy is a champ. WELCOME TO THE RILEYS will roll into my top ten films of Sundance because of both the strong direction and great performances from this incredible cast.

Doug Riley (James Gandolfini) owns a plumbing supply company that does very well for him and his wife. Every Thursday night he plays cards with his friends and then goes to eat breakfast at a diner. The waitress that serves him is also his mistress whom he has been seeing for the past 4 years.

Louis Riley (Melissa Leo) is a stay at home house wife who does exactly that… stays at home. She doesn’t leave her house, not even to check the mail at the end of the driveway. She knows of the affair but to keep the peace she never brings it up to Doug. Doug is forced to go on a trip to New Orleans for a convention and after a visit to a strip club becomes increasingly interested in one of the young strippers, Mallory (Kristen Stewart).

In this particular strip club, not only are the dances for sale but also the girls. After Mallory offers to have sex with him for money he realizes that this girl needs some major help. It also doesn’t help that this girl looks identical to the daughter they lost a couple of years previously.

Doug decides that in order to help this girl he needs to stay in New Orleans. He makes her a proposition to move in and help take care of her. He drops the bomb to his wife that he wouldn’t be home for a while. This devastates her and she decides that the only way to win him back is to drive to New Orleans and get him.

I don’t want to ruin the rest of the film for you so that’s as far as I will delve into the plot. I will tell you that the three main actors in the film, James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo and Kristen Stewart all turn in amazing performances. It would have been very easy for things to go south in each of the roles but Jake Scott pulled out what could be one of the best performances of Stewart’s career and definitely my favorite of Gandolfini and Leo.

WELCOME TO THE RILEYS is a touching, emotional journey that you aren’t really sure where it will go, but leaves you happy with where it ends. Jake Scott does an amazing job of getting what he wants for each character and makes every scene raw and real. There is a lot of grittiness in the story and it fits in perfectly with the storyline. You shouldn’t be disappointed after this film.

Overall Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5