A certain magic happens when you mix a little horror/adventure with compelling child actors, you get films like The Goonies, Jumanji, or Super 8, and Sketch from writer/director Seth Worley is a great addition to this legacy.
The heart of Sketch is about a family grieving the loss of their mother/wife and how that grief manifests. The film begins with Amber (played by Bianca Belle) sketching an image of a creature stabbing a rude classmate (Bowman played by Kalon Cox). The image is horrifying with lots of blood. When she gets sent to see a child therapist/counselor she says that she drew the image because Bowman upset her and her father, Taylor (played by Tony Hale), encouraged her not to bottle up bad feelings/thoughts, using a metaphor of inbox and outbox. She is given a new notebook to use as an outbox, because it is a healthy tool for expressing her feelings (though she is encouraged to share when she feels comfortable). She proceeds to draw pages and pages.
We discover quickly that Amber’s mother is dead and her family has not been dealing with it. Taylor has hidden every reference to her and her brother Jack (played by Kue Lawrence) is trying too hard to pretend he’s okay since Amber’s gone dark. When Jack discovers a pond that magically repairs broken things, he plans to put their mother’s ashes in, hoping it will fix their broken family. However, Amber’s notebook gets dropped instead. Her notebook which she has filled with many more nightmare creatures. And it brings them all to life – it was her outbox.
Meanwhile, Taylor had been trying to sell their family home with the help of his realtor sister Liz (played by D’Arcy Carden). But with Amber’s drawings on the loose, they have to stop to try and rescue the kids… only of course like with all these stories, the kids have to take the lead, but by doing this they learn to relate better together.
It is a film with magic, so in some ways, you have to take a leap with the logic that the same magic that repairs a phone and plate will also pull drawings from pages. But it’s magical water and, again, what the magic is actually doing still holds, just in a roundabout way, because the drawings had to come alive to help repair their fractured family.
And drawings coming to life is the stuff you sign on for in a film that I would put in a double billing with any of those previous ones. You want magic, even if there is a little bit of terror to it.
Now this is very much a film meant for families, the terror isn’t because the creatures are particularly horrifying, it comes from being placed in more Jumanji/Jurassic Park situations where the mostly kid cast have to figure out how to outsmart, outrun, or wash away the creatures.
There is so much humour and heart in this film and I always love films where kids are 3-Dimensional and get to be as funny, smart, and weird as they are in life. There is this really wonderful moment, that I don’t want to spoil, but it’s where Liz addresses the theme of the film to Taylor. It was really nice because all the groundwork had been laid but I didn’t realize they were going that path until it was stated because of how effectively Worley is at not tipping his hat.
Sketch had its World Premiere at the 49th annual Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations section.
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