The Other Tom hinges on the specific, real-life implications of social issues that are often spoken about in abstract generalities. The pharmaceutical industry’s outsized influence on family medicine, the potential overmedication of children with behavioral issues, income inequality, the role of public education in ensuring a child’s overall wellbeing, the line between parental rights and child neglect—these are all hot button issues that fuel the drama within co-writer/co-director Rodrigo Plá and Laura Santullo’s film. But The Other Tom raises questions it has little intention of answering.
Even without providing much commentary on these issues, there’s still great value in shining a light on society’s systemic problems, and in the right hands, moral ambiguity within conflicted characters can make for dynamic storytelling. There’s no doubt that the challenges faced by blue-collar single mother Elena (Julia Chavez) and her nine-year-old, ADHD-afflicted son Tom (Israel Rodriguez) are the result of a combination of systemic barriers and questionable choices. But while the young Rodriguez turns in a fine performance, adding poignancy to his character without being maudlin, Chavez delivers her lines flatly, which only highlights the script’s often wooden dialogue.
In many ways, The Other Tom plays like a less vivid version of The Florida Project, with a mom who struggles to balance her own needs with those of her child as the specter of Child Protective Services looms. The mothers in both films clearly love their respective children, but unlike her volatile counterpart in The Florida Project, Elena does actually appear more concerned with her child’s well-being than her own. She simply struggles to know what the right decision might be. When Tom’s teachers first indicate that he’s having behavioral problems at school, she listens to the doctors who prescribe him meds to treat his attention deficit, and then doesn’t bat an eye at more meds to treat those pills’ side effects. After an upset Tom tumbles out the door of Elena’s newly purchased used car — perhaps intentionally — Elena blames the drugs, which in addition to the insomnia Tom has been experiencing, also could cause hallucinations and suicidal ideation.
Elena makes the snap decision for Tom to ditch the medication cold turkey, even though the pills are required by the school. Further complicating matters, part of Tom’s troubles at school seem to stem from some teachers treating Tom unfairly because he makes their jobs more difficult. Only one teacher ever tells Elena anything encouraging about her son, praising his artistic talent and encouraging a few workshops to develop it. This is one of many threads that goes underexplored, perhaps in realistic fashion, as when a family struggles to make ends meet, there’s little room for indulging passions. The film also illustrates how, for working-class folks living paycheck to paycheck, something as simple as car trouble — of course Elena’s new car is a bit of a lemon — can derail plans and have an oversized influence on a family’s well-being.
Ultimately, however, the stiff acting by Chavez and many of the other adult actors, coupled with dialogue that sounds wholly unnatural in certain stretches, saps much of The Other Tom’s emotive impact. What’s more, given its title, one might expect a significant behavioral or even personality change in the young protagonist, but we never see all that much difference between Tom whether he’s medicated or not. The film’s ambiguity — Elena’s impulsive and stubborn decisions lead to her hold on maintaining custody becoming even more tenuous — isn’t played as a strength, and instead controversial topics like overmedicating children are used to infuse some drama by default rather than crafting a compelling scenario through effective writing or nuanced performance.
Photo courtesy of Outsider Pictures
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