Almost Friends (2016 film)

Almost Friends is a 2016 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jake Goldberger. The film stars Freddie Highmore, Odeya Rush, Haley Joel Osment, Christopher Meloni, and Marg Helgenberger.

College drop out Charlie, who's moved back home, is struggling to discover who he really is as he deals with an irresponsible father and has a crush on Amber, a young woman who already has a boyfriend and is soon leaving for college.

The film premiered on October 14, 2016, at the Austin Film Festival. It was released in North America on November 17, 2017, by Gravitas Ventures and Orion Pictures.

Plot
Charlie Brenner is an unmotivated man who's returned home after dropping out of college. Living with his mother, stepfather Ross and brother Steven, he works at a small movie theatre and lives vicariously through his best friend Ben.

Charlie's life takes an unpredictable turn, however, when he finds himself falling for local coffee shop barista Amber. His friend Heather picks him up in the evening, and tries to convince him to join an upcoming party with their old high school classmates.

Amber isn't satisfied with her life. She has a mooching roommate, her cousin Jack, a track star boyfriend Brad and has steadfast plans to go to NYU in New York City in the fall.

Charlie and Heather head to the party. They share the elevator on the way up with Amber and Brad, where unbeknownst to Heather she loudly outs Charlie about his inability to ask out the barista he's almost stalking. Amber later approaches Charlie, but they talk only briefly before Brad convinces her to leave.

Then, Charlie's estranged father Howard unexpectedly re-enters his life, convincing him to let him stay. Against his mother's protests, Charlie lets Howard sleep in his room.

Although initially brushing Charlie off when he stops by the café, Amber later she suggests he walk with her the next day. They get to know each other, and he finds out she lives with Jack as her mom moved to Florida and she wanted to finish her senior year here, and she's been with Brad through most of high school.

Charlie gives Amber his number, and she ends up calling as she's got the upsetting news of being pregnant. Not wanting to be alone, she goes to his house for dinner. There Amber learns of Charlie's initial success with cooking, then his father and Ross end up arguing. After Charlie and Steven play around, she inexplicably gets upset.

Amber and Charlie go outside, and she tells him about taking a pregnancy test, although she lies about the result. She says it made her feel like her whole life flashed before her eyes.

At a party to celebrate Ben's passing the bar exam, Charlie is forced to use the ladies' room, where he overhears Amber telling her friend that she sees him as lost and could never see herself with him. Upset, he storms out.

Days pass, and as Amber hasn't heard from Charlie for a while, she shows up at his house. He lets her know he'd overheard her talking to her friend about him negatively. After they suddenly start making out, his father interrupts, so they go out to Steven's playhhouse. Charlie explains that a traumatic traffic accident he was involved in threw him off course after his junior year.

After Amber tells Charlie they can't be friends any more, he and Steven get lured out of the house by Howard, who clears the house of its furniture. Fired up with frustration, Charlie approaches Brad after track practice and challenges him to race. Brad inadvertently doubles over in pain.

Charlie ends up seeing Amber in the hospital, and explains he was being an asshole with Brad. Soon afterwards, Brad confronts her about Charlie and they break up.

In the meantime, Charlie drives down to a hotel in New Orleans his father had mentioned. Discovering most of the stolen furniture is in storage, Charlie gets the police involved and it is returned to his mother's. While there, Howard tells him two secrets he'd unearthed: Amber's abortion and Ben's passed bar confirmation.

Returning home, Charlie finally finds the path forward. He contacts a NYC chef who'd once shown an interest, getting an assistant chef position, then moves with Ben to the city as he knows who he wants to be.

Cast

 * Freddie Highmore as Charlie Brenner
 * Odeya Rush as Amber
 * Haley Joel Osment as Ben
 * Christopher Meloni as Howard
 * Marg Helgenberger as Samantha
 * Rita Volk as Heather
 * Jake Abel as Jack
 * Taylor John Smith as Brad
 * Lonnie Knight as Homeless Man
 * Gary Ray Moore as Ross
 * Jon Hayden as Russel

Production
On August 18, 2015, it was announced that the production on comedy-drama film Holding Patterns was underway, starring Freddie Highmore, Odeya Rush, Haley Joel Osment, Rita Volk, Jake Abel, and Taylor John Smith. Jake Goldberger was directing the film from his own screenplay, while Alex Ginzburg and Tony Lee would be producing the film through Let It Play, with Jim Young producing through Animus Films. On August 26, 2015, Christopher Meloni and Marg Helgenberger joined the film's cast to play Howard and Samantha, respectively, and Gary Ray Moore also joined the cast.

Principal photography began in Mobile, Alabama on July 27, 2015. Highmore and Volk were spotted shooting on location at Spanish Fort High School the following day.

Release
In October 2017, Gravitas Ventures and Orion Pictures acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a November 17, 2017, release.

Box office
Almost Friends has grossed a total worldwide of $46,376, and sales of its DVD/Blu-ray releases have cashed $16,355.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Almost Friends has an approval rating of based on seven reviews, with an average rating of.

In a positive review, Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle wrote, "[The film] has an easygoing charm that should earn it a solid place among the subset of movies about young people who emerge from their small-town cocoons and screw up their courage to take flight for the bright lights of New York City." Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter described it less favorably as "a comic drama that's sometimes appealingly gentle but more often frustratingly amorphous" with "instances of wit and sensitivity scattered through the screenplay, but they have no cumulative impact amid the lackluster direction and general dearth of urgency." Upon the film's theatrical release, Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times called the film's premise of Highmore's character, Charlie, tenuously pursuing a relationship with Rush's Amber despite her existing relationship, "painfully tone-deaf" in light of the onset of Me Too movement, suggesting it "feels like a relic of a bygone era, when movies could casually present stalking and coercion as acceptable forms of courtship."