issions (2004)

A gifted high-school student flubs her college issions interviews for the most unexpected reasons in this independent coming-of-age drama. Cynical, world-weary Evie is more interested in taking care of her family than getting into the Ivy League institutions for which she seems destined. Dad Harry spends all his time building model trains in the basement, while workaholic mom Martha depends on Evie to take care of her other daughter, developmentally challenged Emily. When she's not busy reading poetry to her sister Emily, Evie hangs out with James (Fran Kranz), the sensitive boy next door, whose romantic overtures prove too confusing to acknowledge. College also seems too daunting, so Evie deliberately blows one university interview after another in the hopes of staying at home as her sister's keeper. Meanwhile, Evie begins ing off her own poems as Emily's, fuelling the belief that her brain-damaged sister is actually a literary savant.