On the other hand, Fanning, in a crucial role, is out of her range — a real shame considering the exciting last year she’s had in films such as The Neon Demon and 2. Century Women. Those are two of the nearly dozen characters connected to Sidney, crammed into the film’s three narratives, most of which are underdeveloped and feel like cardboard pawns in search of a better script. This kind of messy mosaic prevents the audience from sympathizing with any of them as the runtime (just under two hours) is too short to cram in a shred of substantial character development. What makes it even worse is that, essentially, what Christensen tries to create here is a tearjerker: a Scrooge- like tale of isolation and redemption, but what he doesn’t understand is that the best movies of the genre expertly develop their character’s sympathies so that once the tugging of the heart strings occurs, an audience can feel something.
There really is none of that here, making Sidney Hall a manipulative mess from start to finish. Sidney Hall premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. DSee More: Elle Fanning, Festivals, Kyle Chandler, Logan Lerman, Nathan Lane, Shawn Christensen, Sidney Hall, Sundance 2.