In the week after the accidental death of their child, Alice (Jeanne Tripplehorn) wanders the mall, zombie-like, secretly buying a pair of tiny cowboy boots, while her husband, Mark (actor-director Leland Orser), stoically swings a golf club at the funeral-home flowers that litter the living room. Each day the couple rises to perform new rites of self-flagellation: Both break several panes of glass, vomit sporadically, drive recklessly, drink in excess and fall asleep in unusual places. As an exercise in grief, Orser’s drama is affecting, exhausting and something of a shortcut: Only in brief glimpses—and after a much-needed trip to a therapist (Laura Linney) and doctor (Elliott Gould)—do they actually acknowledge the tragedy and approach the thorny question of how to move on.
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