| Preston Plummer (Trevor Morgan) is graduating from university with the feeling of never really having loved anything. At a party he meets a girl who wants him to drive her home. Not just college home, but home, home – in another state. She needs to go home and he needs an adventure which he never got to experience. “The Diary of Preston Plummer” is about the long journey home — physically, emotionally and spiritually. | | 2012
Directed by: Sean Ackerman
Screenplay by: Sean Ackerman
Starring: Trevor Morgan, Rumer Willis |
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| Photos courtesy of Wonder Entertainment. |
It’s a large scope story told in a small way with some of the best writing I could ever imagine. Kate (the girl) doesn’t understand the universe because of her family’s troubled past and she doesn’t know how to make things just work out. Preston does understand the universe, in a physics scholar kind of way. He studies entropy and although he doesn’t understand what has happened in Kate’s past, he wants to use his dark and dismal explanation of the expansion of the universe and actually help her. As he falls in love with her, he finds a non-genius, personal way of helping her.
The reasons this is such a great film is because it’s not nearly as obtuse as my previous paragraph might make it out to be. The plot can be explained any number of ways. It’s a romantic drama where both boy and girl need to overcome their troubled past to fully love themselves and each other. The film is also told as a simple mystery. As has been greatly hinted to, something is not quite right with Kate’s family. Preston takes it upon himself to figure out what they think occurred and what actually occurred. That certainly is interesting in and of itself, but I was riveted from the very beginning based on the character of Preston Plummer alone.
Preston’s a genius, but he doesn’t see himself as one. He was lonely in school but doesn’t realize that he was until he starts discovering what love is. His childhood wasn’t perfect, but he doesn’t let that define him. I connected with him as soon as his many characteristics were revealed, I fell in love with him, and I wanted to go on this “adventure” with him. I use the term “adventure” loosely since this is not how Hollywood defines it. It’s a slowly engrossing, lonely journey to a simple love story.
Trevor Morgan as Preston Plummer was perfect. He’s a realistic kind of character, but completely lovable, endearing and sympathetic from the start. I wasn’t as sold on Kate, she was sort of this mystery person to me, but that also could have just been jealousy. The romance element was enveloping; more realistic and down-to-Earth than any romantic dramas I have seen. But it’s not just a romantic drama, it’s a heartfelt character study, a mysterious journey, and an explanation of the Universe’s tendency to make life fall apart. “The Diary of Preston Plummer” is nearing perfection. |
