Fairhaven

Released Jan 11, 2013

1 hr. 21 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

47%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

31%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Three longtime friends (Tom O'Brien, Chris Messina, Rich Sommer) reunite for a funeral and come to a realization about their lives.

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Audience Member

Not bad, not great. Familiar storyline, decent acting, nothing ground breaking.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

One sentence summary: Skip this film unless you like self-important feel bad comedies. Jon, a former high school football star returns home to the small fishing village of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He was an arrogant, useless jerk in high school, and returns a failed, arrogant, useless jerk. We start with layer upon layer of cliché. Will there be any evolution, or is this just another fouled up, self-regarding 'feel bad comedy'? Dave is back from Arizona to talk to old friends and catch up with his mother. Jon is trying to get into something new, perhaps writing. He arranges to quit his fishing job as soon as he can find a replacement. He's in two kinds of therapy. The obligatory drunken barroom and getting high scenes are just as boring as one might expect. Jon, Dave, and Sam are not any better at it than any one else. Sam has stayed in Fairhaven (as opposed to Jon and Dave), has gotten married, had a daughter, got a divorce, and dealt with the break up. Nobody seems to be any happier than anyone else. The funeral for Dave's father was nicely awkward. The ending was flat, rather like the rest of the film. Scores Cinematography: 10/10 Exceptionally lovely shooting, especially the exteriors. Depth of field is shallow for the interiors to isolate the character to focus on, showing a nice level of control. Framing and color saturation are great. Sound: 8/10 Occasionally the music was blaring. Acting: 4/10 The performances are all too often from the 'smile, show how cool you are' school of non-involvement. Boring, non-engaging. Screenplay: 4/10 Stupid premise, bad execution, boring; not aided by immature actors.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Pot smoking and bro angst. Boring and self-indulgent.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Glad it was an iTunes $.99 rental because I couldn't even get halfway through, it was so bad.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fairhaven was brilliantly acted, unpredictable, and leaves you wishes you had more opportunity to follow the characters. Highly recommended!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

just nice, nothing more

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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Tom O'Brien

Director

Tom O'Brien

Jon

Chris Messina

Dave

Rich Sommer

Sam

Sarah Paulson

Kate

Alexie Gilmore

Angela

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Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Personal tenderness combines with a good sense of composition and a naturalistic storytelling style to give a small, familiar premise a nice lilt.

Rated: B+

Jan 16, 2013

Full Review

Lou Lumenick

New York Post

The clich-infested script ... is long on booze-filled confessions.

Rated: 1.5/4

Jan 11, 2013

Full Review

Joe Leydon

Variety

While there's something undeniably fascinating about the way "Fairhaven" repeatedly avoids predictable payoffs for portentous dramatic setups, narrative momentum is conspicuous by its absence.

Jan 10, 2013

Full Review

Neely Swanson

Easy Reader (California)

[Director Tom] O'Brien never quite finds a focus around which to center the longing that all three boys/men feel.

Sep 18, 2017

Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

The movie feels intimate and therapy-bound yet aesthetically remote.

Rated: D

Jul 14, 2015

Full Review

Tony Macklin

tonymacklin.net

It's difficult to dislike Fairhaven, because it is a promising, earnest effort.

Rated: 2.0/5

Jan 30, 2013

Full Review

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Synopsis

Three longtime friends (Tom O'Brien, Chris Messina, Rich Sommer) reunite for a funeral and come to a realization about their lives.

Director: Tom O'Brien
Executive Producer: Darren Goldberg, Chris Messina, Dennis O'Neill, Chris Marsh
Screenwriter: Tom O'Brien, Chris Messina
Production Co: Atlantic Pictures, Beacon Films
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 11, 2013, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 16, 2014

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