High school senior Henry Nearing (Gregory Smith) has to cope with the death of his mother and is also forced to come to terms with evolving from a self-absorbed and confused adolescent to accepting the responsibilities of early adulthood. Unfortunately his father, Shep (David Morse), and his older brother, Blair (David Moscow), don't offer guidance and find themselves detaching at the seams. His father quits his teaching job, buys a motorcycle, and becomes a perpetual drunk, while his brother takes off to live as a transient doper. To make things even more complicated, Henry has two young women on his mind: the sexy, wealthy, very popular Grace (Jordana Brewster) and childhood friend Merna (Ashley Johnson)—one girl drives him crazy, and the other girl keeps him sane.
Nearing Grace has a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics consensus being that "this coming-of-age story doesn't dig deep enough to offer anything fresh to the genre."[1] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Ordoña's review was mixed but ultimately positive, concluding that despite a sometimes lackluster lead performance, the strong supporting cast and clever dialogue allowed the film's strengths to "outweigh its flaws."[2]
