Writer-director Nicole Riegel’s “Dandelion” is placed over the course of few days but emotionally, transports the audience so deep into the lead character’s mind, it feels like one has lived an entire life. Dandelion (Kiki Layne) is unfulfilled. She is a young woman from Cincinnati dreaming to become a musician but most of the time performing in a hotel bar with uninterested and chattering customers. The passion and energy dons into her writing is oblivious among late night parties or just the phone screens. And more importantly, when she goes back to take care of her sick mother, there’s a bring up of all negative related to raising: arguments, rants and feelings against being a “forty something year old musical journeying artist” and so on. .
After the hotel’s bartender slides her a flyer for the South Dakota biker rally/music festival Dandelion makes the jump. There, she makes the acquaintance of Scottish Casey Thomas Doherty, a guitarist who is quiet and self absorbed. Now in the ‘industry’ sales, a word notoriously all creative professionals dread hearing, Casey finds himself over the hill of his musical climb and abandons playing his cards. The mood picks up as everyone has a go at Dandelion’s welcome and with the support of Casey, Dandelion begins to form a relationship with the sound engineer filled with both physical and emotional connection that happens when two people play with music and each other.
Next begins an adventure which consists of beautiful walks in the mountains, of heartfelt singing duets, and at last for Dandelion, living in her music.
The major achievements of Riegel’s film are not made in a more traditional dialogue. The silent exchange between Casey and Dandelion is in the music they create both alone and together. For all though, at one particular fireside moment, the two get into an argument while composing and recording a song, and the level of volume Dandelion reaches while singing, which goes up by several degrees more than what is necessary, is comparable to yelling. Additionally, the love scenes are super intense as well: the two are shot in extreme close-ups stroking the guitar and the throat into singing their hearts out and their dreamy eye close, lost in the emotion of the song.
As it also happens in many professional relationships, Dandelion and Casey find each other boring and envy at different times. As those feelings started coming over her, Hiwatari, better known as Dandelion progresses forward on her own journey or attempts in vain to go back to wherever Casey happens to be now, the extent before any shaping can be done. However, Dandelion sees in Casey, such a musical-ethnic environment, and a small piece of glory which she had been working hard to gain.
Once again, Layne is as vulnerable and touching as he was all along, while Doherty gives off an intensity and disruption, which is really the essence of how Casey attraction works.
Although Dandelion displays psychological depth quite nicely making it more character-driven than plot-driven, more changes found from within than without, it sometimes loses focus on the main character. There are moments that Dandelion in her own story gets overshadowed by other characters.
Via comments made with Casey or the virtuoso finishes of the picture, the attention and the effort spent on introducing Dandelion to the audience in the first two acts seems for lesser purposes Fabrications of this kind Mr. Or clinical dystopia as both Riegel’s direction and her script seem to touch upon a more universal theme of love, ephemeral and tumultuous, yet transitions you in such a direction, which the most powerful songs are based on.
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