There’s a Message Hidden in ‘Smoke’

In “Smoke Signals,” an unlikely pair of friends takes a life-changing six-day trip from Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation to Phoenix to retrieve the ashes of an abusive father. Rated PG-13.

There are so many ways a father can alienate his children. In “Smoke Signals,” the alcoholic father beats his wife and son and then abandons them to fend for themselves on a reservation while he goes to live alone in a trailer in the desert. What sets this story apart is that it shows, through the eyes of Native Americans Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, how a grown child can forgive a father--even after he’s dead.

The message, packaged in self-deprecating wit, came through clearly to 13-year-old Tara Grant of Orange. “Sometimes people need to do things they regret, and you have to forgive them,” she said. Despite its painful underlying theme, the movie made her laugh, she said. “It just had a real good feel to it.”

Tara and her friend Alexis Wolf, 13, of North Tustin agreed that they probably wouldn’t have gone to see this small, award-winning independent film if they hadn’t been prodded by Alexis’ mother, who chose it for a family outing. They said they were surprised they liked it as much as they did, and they were glad they had a chance to see something besides an action movie and to see Native Americans in films besides “Dances With Wolves” and “The Last of the Mohicans.”

They were amused by scenes of life on “the Rez”--especially those of a radio weather correspondent who sat on the roof of his van, commenting on the sparse traffic and the shapes of the clouds. They also laughed at two girlfriends who had given up drinking but still liked to spend the day driving the highway in reverse.

Younger children would probably miss much of the movie’s more serious side, which also explores the uneasy relationship of the two young men, the handsome Victor (Adam Beach), who resents his absent father, and the nerdy Thomas (Evan Adams), who tells stories (an “excellent example of the oral tradition”) with no regard for veracity. Saved from the same house fire as infants, they end up on the road trip when Thomas agrees to finance the odyssey if he can go along. Eventually Thomas inspires Victor to find a way to forgive his father.

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PARENTS’ PERSPECTIVE: “It’s humorous to start with and at the end, extremely emotional,” said Gerald Wolf, Alexis’ father. “As a male relating to someone who lost his father at 14, it’s very powerful. . . . I think kids have to be at least 12 or 13 to even understand it.”

His wife, Gemma, said the movie is great for older kids. “It makes them think,” she said. “It’s the kind of movie you can see again and get other messages. It’s deeper than it appears on the surface.

“If a son and father saw it, it would be interesting to see what they had to say about it,” she said.