Short Term 12 (Destin Cretton, USA, 2013, 96 min)
Available on several streaming services, including Netflix Instant View
Short Term 12 is about a young woman, Grace, who works for at-risk teenagers while having problems of her own. She struggles both in maintaining the kids’ lives and her life, especially in the midst of a big life decision. It becomes apparent that her past trouble is interfering with her present happiness and the only thing that seems to allow Grace to work through these troubles is by helping the young residents through their similar problems. The movie is heartwarming, funny at times and has really great characters, but there is an emotional agenda that makes me doubt the authenticity of the film. The characters are well-developed enough to create sympathy on their own, so the constant strumming of emotional high notes are unnecessary and a bit over the top.
The movie opens with an anecdote being told to a new employee about a past resident. The story is funny, and conveys the kind of teenagers who live in the home, but it is interrupted by an attempted escape. Here we learn an important rule of the home: if the teenagers make it out of the gate, they cannot be touched. So when there is an attempted escape the employees have to sprint and tackle the resident before they get too far. This foreshadows the overall dynamic between the residents and the employees—there is a constant need to balance compassion, patience and constraint.
T
he unique and interesting characters provide the most enjoyable parts of the film. The residents of the group home are a varied cast of teenagers each with their own problems and remedies. The only character that I wish was developed more was Grace, the protagonist. Her feelings and actions are the main force of the plot, however her subjective state and motivation was hard to obtain. She had problems with her dad as a child, and those problems still affect her, but the extent of those problems and how they affect her aren’t clear. She isn’t sure if she wants a child, but she excels working with troubled youth. Maybe she feels as if her problems will affect her child, but that isn’t suggested at all.
The ambiguity with Grace makes the constant plugging of her emotional situation a bit annoying. I found myself saying, “we get it already, she’s messed up. Either tell us something deeper about her or move on to the more interesting characters.” And the other characters are very interesting. The house includes a young sassy Hispanic boy; a skinny white kid who adores dolls and capes; a meek and tall African American boy who is about to turn 18 and many others. Some of the employees are just as intriguing, especially Grace’s boyfriend who spent his childhood in foster care.
My friend just got a job at a group home for at-risk teenage boys. After I watched Short Term 12 I immediately told her to get another job, adding, “The kids will punch you, and spit on you and make you poop your pants.” I wasn’t successful in persuading her against it, and she reminded me that this was a fictional movie and perhaps not accurate. And she was right, I have no idea what its actually like working for at-risk teenagers. But despite the film laying out the difficulties of social-work, in the end it portrays the job as rewarding, and that the satisfaction earned is worth the struggle. In a way the film can be a call to action for social and non-profit work, though it strongly suggests that only those with troubled pasts can be adequate employees.
