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As children, our capacity for dealing with trauma is, in many ways, nowhere as evolved as the coping mechanisms we develop in adulthood. However, when it comes to being a child, there's one aspect of that particular stage in all our lives that may be more advantageous than anything adults have in their emotional toolbox — and that's imagination. Whether it's drawing, music, or arts and crafts, children have a unique gift for processing their feelings through the act of creation. But what if those creations were more than just therapeutic? What if they had the potential to be just as real as we are? In writer-director Seth Worley's feature debut, Sketch, that's what happens when grade-schooler Amber Wyatt (Bianca Belle) receives a sketchbook from her guidance counsellor. Instructed to draw out her deepest, darkest emotions in the notebook, rather than to keep them bottled up inside her, Amber proceeds to do precisely that, filling its blank pages with a menagerie of colorful and disturbing monsters that all stem from the grief she feels about her mom’s recent passing. But when Amber's brother, Jack (Kue Lawrence), discovers a mysterious lake in the nearby forest that has the magical ability to mend the various broken items he throws in it, it sets the stage for a turn of events that neither Amber, Jack nor their dad, Taylor (Tony Hale), ever saw coming. After accidentally dropping Amber's sketch book in the lake, the family — and the population of their small hometown of Green Leaf — soon find themselves under siege by real-life incarnations of the very same creatures Amber put on the page. But just what do these bizarre, out-of-this-world beasts want? And, more importantly, how can they be stopped from their rampage of terror and indiscriminate destruction? Cut from the same cinematic cloth as '80s big screen romps like Gremlins, The Goonies and Explorers, the result is as charming and imaginative as monster movies get. Still, for all its colorful visuals, crowd-pleasing comedy and action-packed set pieces, it's the film's touching story about a family struggling to overcome the loss of their mother that resonates the most. Whether you're 10-years-old or 110, this is the type of movie that has something for everyone. When it comes to the type of moviegoer who will get the most out of it, though, it's fans of fantastical, family-friendly stories that will find themselves most drawn to Sketch. |
Sketch screens under the Special Presentations programme at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Its runtime is 1 hr. 32 min.
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