Loggerheads (2005): B+

Loggerheads’ endangered turtle symbolism is perhaps its only significant misstep, as writer/director Tim Kirkman’s multilayered tale of adoption, atonement and acceptance is otherwise characterized by an assured restraint and attention to the subtleties of human interaction. Kirkman’s narrative (“based on a true story”) is divided into three related strands which take place in successive years: in 1999, nomadic HIV-positive Mark (Kip Pardue) meets motel owner George (Michael Kelly) while visiting North Carolina’s Kure Beach to save some Loggerhead turtles; in 2000, Mark’s adoptive mother Elizabeth (Tess Harper) struggles to confront her own small-mindedness, and that of her minister husband (Chris Sarandon), which ultimately forced Mark to leave home; and in 2001, Mark’s suicidal birth mother Grace (Bonnie Hunt) attempts to find the son she gave away two decades earlier. Kirkman gracefully intercuts between his trio of related stories to create the sense that each disconnected character is simultaneously undergoing a similar emotional transformation, and his acoustic ballad-heavy score, though it should prove too cloying by half, instead beautifully contributes to the film’s tender humanism. Benefiting from its cast’s finely nuanced performances (especially Hunt and Harper), the unassuming and affecting Loggerheads astutely acknowledges the destructive consequences of pride and fear while – in the spirit of its biblical allusions – never losing faith in the redemptive, healing power of tolerance.