A young man struggles to find purpose and meaning as he pulled in different directions by best friends, ex-partner and new man in his life.
Rule number one: in order to take the audience on an 'in simpatico' journey with the troubled young protagonist, a film/script/level of character development must allow the audience to care. Trevor's problems are well telegraphed - dead-end job, ambivalent support from his friends, cyclical torments caused by junkie ex-lover, estrangement from family etc., but as Trevor is so unappealing, we find it hard to care. All the primary characters are so self-serving - Trevor's life is all about the aforementioned miseries, Jake is sour and one-note sarcastic, Andi is utterly self-absorbed (I want a man/I don't want a man), Daryl's addiction behaviour patterns and Ephraim's need for commitment and reassurance. Everyone looks at their lives and events with such a total lack of empathy that when Andi finally explodes and delivers her drunken tirade at Trevor for being so self-obsessed I actually had to laugh. Holding Trevor isn't about relationships with others, it's about relationships with 'self', and the eventual choice made by Trevor (start afresh or replace one needy and suffering friend with another) seems to reinforce this - Jake, Andi and Ephraim all put themselves first ('you can't go/stay; we need you') and for all the suggestion of positive change (Trevor's quitting from his job), the reality is just more of the same for poor, poor Trevor... his choice.
Rule number one: in order to take the audience on an 'in simpatico' journey with the troubled young protagonist, a film/script/level of character development must allow the audience to care. Trevor's problems are well telegraphed - dead-end job, ambivalent support from his friends, cyclical torments caused by junkie ex-lover, estrangement from family etc., but as Trevor is so unappealing, we find it hard to care. All the primary characters are so self-serving - Trevor's life is all about the aforementioned miseries, Jake is sour and one-note sarcastic, Andi is utterly self-absorbed (I want a man/I don't want a man), Daryl's addiction behaviour patterns and Ephraim's need for commitment and reassurance. Everyone looks at their lives and events with such a total lack of empathy that when Andi finally explodes and delivers her drunken tirade at Trevor for being so self-obsessed I actually had to laugh. Holding Trevor isn't about relationships with others, it's about relationships with 'self', and the eventual choice made by Trevor (start afresh or replace one needy and suffering friend with another) seems to reinforce this - Jake, Andi and Ephraim all put themselves first ('you can't go/stay; we need you') and for all the suggestion of positive change (Trevor's quitting from his job), the reality is just more of the same for poor, poor Trevor... his choice.