“A Little Prayer” opens as the camera slowly tracks up a deserted, tree-lined suburban street in North Carolina. Coming from somewhere in the distance, a woman is heard singing a hymn in the crisp, early morning air.
This is the deceptively gentle opening to a movie about a family in deep disarray. But the writer-director, Angus MacLachlan – he wrote the script for the genial Amy Adams indie hit “Junebug” – is not one to exploit turmoil. He understands that people in distress are deserving of our fullest understanding.
MacLachlan’s low-key style is perfectly suited to his lead actor, David Strathairn, whose delicate, nuanced underplaying has graced many a film. Strathairn plays Bill, the type of man often described as a “pillar of his community.” A churchgoing Vietnam vet who regularly meets up with his VFW buddies, he runs a sheet metal company outside Winston-Salem and dotes on his equally doting wife,…
