Since her mother's death, 10-year-old Amber White (Bianca Bell) has been troubled by all sorts of dark thoughts. Rather than act on these impulses, Amber writes down her wildest thoughts in a secret diary, purging her subconscious of anxiety through art. The process would be therapeutic, were it not for the sudden unleashing of Amber's terrifying lines into the real world: marker-drawn hearts with an insatiable appetite, a bright, bulging-eyed monster on long, curved legs, and swarms of red, spider-like “eyes.”
In his wonderfully indie family film “Sketch,” director Seth Worley creates an inventive—and highly teachable—concept for his first feature film, using imaginative visual effects to convey a valuable lesson about dealing with grief and other powerful emotions. The live-action/CGI hybrid captures the spirit of “Jumanji,” through “The Babadook,” but with something important to say. Once Amber’s drawings start to take off and start terrorizing the locals, young “morphan” (her word for a child whose mother died), older brother Jack (Keo Lawrence) and their still-grieving father Taylor (Tony Hale) must confront the emotions they’ve been avoiding. If they don’t, their unresolved feelings are likely to consume them all.
The trouble begins when Amber draws an evil version of herself stabbing one of her classmates—a neighbor named Bowman (Callon Cox), who isn’t so much a bully as he is just plain obnoxious (but in a way that’s hard to hate, like Chunk from “The Goonies”). After being taken to the counselor’s office, Amber expects to be punished, but instead she’s told, “You could have kept that anger inside,” and encouraged to write down such thoughts in a special notebook, where she can’t hurt anyone.
It’s good advice, except for the fact that Jack has discovered a strange feature of the pond behind their house—possibly a spell of some sort. Throw something in the water, and the water will magically fix it. Working on his phone and a broken plate, he’s preparing to try it with his mother’s ashes (a decidedly bad idea) when Amber’s notebook drops. The next thing they know, her drawings have manifested in the real world, Godzilla-sized and programmed to do whatever she had in mind when she drew them: attack, eat a snack, or just plain annoy them.
Logistically, Worley can get by without fancy sets or Marvel-caliber effects, because these primitive intruders are based on Amber’s primitive drawings, right down to the material they’re made of. Heat seems to be an effective weapon against the waxy chalk creatures, while a hard hit will melt the chalk monsters into lumps of colored dust. After resisting Amber’s drawings for several hours, the entire family (including Aunt Liz, played by D’Arcy Carden) ends up covered in all manner of painterly concoctions.
But they haven’t yet dealt with Amber’s most terrifying creation: the evil version of herself she draws disemboweling herself. Drawn in sharpie pencil and then hand-painted with a purple hood, this antagonist looks more menacing than her others—which are mostly just for comedy, whether it’s the location-speaking “Tattler” or the tentacled cat that looks a bit Lovecraftian. Few of them are actually benevolent, like whatever leaves yellow dust on your bedroom window.
“Sketch” relies on a level of logic that younger viewers may find intuitive, inviting them to solve problems alongside the story’s characters. It’s a lot like “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl,” in that only the parents can envision it with their children (there are drawings of the Worley family mixed in with some of Amber’s darker creations).
Convinced that such a personal project could appeal to a wide audience, Worley directed a 12-minute short film called Dark Colors. The feature version is warmer and more playful, with a Harold and the Purple Crayon vibe in the way the new drawings help save the day.
The director doesn’t try to hide the educational side of “Sketch,” but in Hill he’s found an actor who doesn’t seem to know everything. The director and star have a welcome humility as parents, crafting the story to suggest that children and adults have important things to learn from each other, and that some challenges are best faced as a family.
Each of the characters dealt with their mother’s death differently. Taylor removed all of her pictures and tried to act like nothing had happened, which was much worse than Amber’s strategy. Fortunately, Hale’s character is good at connecting with her children, giving the adults a good starting point when it comes time to discuss what they’ve seen, as well as some takeaways for themselves.
