THE CATCH, 2021 Manchester International Film Festival
Synopsis:
Set in a rural fishing community fighting to hold tight to its traditions as the world shifts around it, THE CATCH follows a troubled woman’s return to her estranged family in coastal Maine. With her lobsterman father fighting off an outside attempt to corporatize the local harbor, Beth and an ex-boyfriend make plans to hijack local drug runners and skip town.
When the robbery at sea goes awry, Beth must decide between saving herself or takingresponsibility for the chaos she has created. THE CATCH is based on true crime reporting and personal stories heard on lobster boats and in small towns across New England.
The Story:
THE CATCH is a redemption story exploring the dichotomy of support and suffocation from family and community, the challenge of reaching beyond the expectations of the life you were born into, and the anger of a white working class community who believes they are being left behind. As their desperation mounts, each character makes increasingly compromised and morally dubious decisions that threaten their way of life and their loved
ones.
BETH ran from the community years before, yearning for something more than the clearly plotted life of a fisherman’s wife. When her city life falls apart, she returns to a family she hasn’t spoken to in years, hiding an early-term pregnancy, and seeking shelter and safety.
Instead, she finds her father, TOM, still angry over her disappearance and her continued inability to meet his expectations. With her father and brother, BOBBY, embroiled in a territorial dispute with an outsider attempting to corporatize the local harbor, Beth finds comfort in the arms of DICKY, an immature but well-meaning ex-boyfriend, who still harbors feelings for her.
When she discovers that Dicky is working for local drug smugglers, using lobster pots for dead drops at night, she manipulates him into concocting a plan to steal the next shipment so the two of them can run away together. But as the night of the robbery approaches, Beth’s relationships with her family are thawing and she has second thoughts about leaving them again. Trying to do the right thing, she reveals her hidden pregnancy to her father in a
moment of vulnerability, but his response reawakens the deep mistrust that exists between them. Unwilling to acknowledge the complications of her past mistakes, Beth decides to strike out on her own again. Unbeknownst to Dicky, she arranges to double-cross him, sell the goods locally and disappear.
When the robbery at sea goes wrong, Beth abandons Dicky, without concern for the danger she has left him in, and tries to flee the island. Before she can leave, Beth is surprised by the intervention of her stepmother, LILY, a woman whose kindness Beth has repeatedly rejected. In that moment, Beth is able to glimpse a future that once seemed impossible to her, a future in which taking responsibility would free her from her past.
Realizing the danger she has put her family in, Beth admits her misdeeds to her father and agrees to turn herself and the drugs in to the police. Before she has the opportunity, the smugglers arrive at the house, and a violent and deadly interaction finally pulls Beth closer into the fold of her family than she’s ever been before.
Tickets: https://www.maniff.com/thecatch
