Movie review: 'Shelter' offers some hope

SHELTER

★★★ out of four stars

Rated: R for language, some sexual content and brief drug use.

Theater: Lagoon.

Sometimes a film that relies on stock story lines and even skirts the fringes of old-fashioned melodrama can rise up on the strength of other elements. In the case of writer/director Jonah Markowitz's feature film debut, "Shelter" rises very high indeed, thanks to a superb performance by Trevor Wright in the lead role, a strong supporting cast, very good cinematography and, most of all, emotional authenticity.

Zach (Wright) works as a short-order cook and has turned down a full scholarship from Cal Arts in order to take care of his family, which includes his disabled father, his loser sister, Jeanne (Tina Holmes), and her young son, Cody (Jackson Wurth). When Zach isn't slinging hash, or breaking up or making up with his longtime girlfriend, he's off surfing with his best friend, Gabe (Ross Thomas).

Zach doesn't question whether he is really burdened by all of this responsibility or is hiding behind it until Gabe's older brother Shaun (Brad Rowe) shows up.

Soon enough, Zach is hanging out with Shaun a lot. They surf, they talk, they drink; one night, there's a good-natured wrestling match. Zach's first kiss from a guy leaves him confused. How many gay first encounters in film or fiction have involved alcohol and good-natured wrestling? Too many to count, and no doubt they've happened in real life, but that just means a director had better have a very sure hand if he wants to make them believable on film. Markowitz almost succeeds, but that's largely because he keeps the scene short.

Wright's performance is the beating heart of the film. It's a tricky role, because it calls on the young actor to withhold so much about his inner life yet at the same time give us enough information to see things that he is unwilling to look at. It's Wright's careful minimalism that draws us along in the film and has us rooting for Zach all the way.

DAVID WIEGAND,

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE