The phenomena is universal: the quirky behavior and beliefs of your relatives can embarrass you far more than is warranted by the actual behavior and beliefs. What might be brushed off by the unaffiliated can trigger a slow blushing burn in a son or daughter, husband or wife. Association works as an (admittedly questionable) accelerant not just for guilt, but also for mortification.

I think "embarrassed by association" goes a long way to explaining my groaning irritation with Natural Selection's premise: a Christian couple in Texas live in a sexless marriage because the wife (Linda) is infertile and the husband (Abe) believes it's a sin to "spill his seed in vain" based on God's admonition to Onan in Genesis (38:9). Raised in Texas as a non-denominational fundamentalist, I cringed—literally—at the biblical hermeneutic employed to come up with that bit of life application.

Rachael Harris as Linda

Rachael Harris as Linda

The introduction of the couple's pastor, Linda's brother-in-law Peter, did little to soften the lines on my face. Clearly distressed by the lack of sexual relationship with her husband and looking to her pastor for guidance, Linda does mention that not everyone in the church holds this conviction (thank God, not the pastor, apparently), but contends that it's what Abe believes and so it's what goes. And she's not complaining about it, mind you. One's ideas about a husband's spiritual headship of the home notwithstanding, there's a misappropriation of the Genesis passage in play here that has serious ramifications for the mental and physical health of his parishioners. And any pastor worth his pulpit should be guiding and teaching Abe and Linda on this point. Instead, Pastor Pete offers the most bland of encouragements and barely conceals his own infatuation with Linda. I wondered later if Peter didn't challenge Abe's bad theology because he didn't like the idea of another man having sex with her. So, yeah, not a fan of the pastor. Sigh. The pastor's wife—Linda's older sister, Shelia—only shows up to wave her healthy children in Linda's face and dispense bad medical advice. She's more of an idea—a bossy mean girl with a drawl and a Bible—than a character.

But, of course, I'm being overly sensitive. In the grand tradition of indie films, Natural Selection paints life with a decidedly absurd gloss that serves its purposes well. Its purposes being an exploration of the ways the "weaker" among us (the passive, the people pleasers, the under-achievers) navigate a world seemingly intent on the survival of the fittest. I point out my own biases (and perhaps some of yours) in relation to the premise of Natural Selection so that when I give this movie three stars, you understand that those stars are hard-earned based on criteria outside the control of first-time writer/director Robbie Pickering—namely, my family.

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John Gries as Peter

John Gries as Peter

Fully two of those stars might be summed up with one name: Rachael Harris. Perhaps best recognized as Stu's irritating girlfriend in The Hangover, Harris brings Linda's decisions and concerns to life with incredible nuance and empathy while navigating terrain that is both comedic and dramatic, often at the same time. It's a testament to Pickering's script and to Harris that Linda's personality, while somewhat naive, is never cloying. Despite her husband's edict, she still harbors and expresses sexual desire for him, making herself both vulnerable and assertive. She is submissive, but not a doormat. When Linda learns that Abe, throughout the 20 plus years of their marriage, has been making twice-weekly donations at the sperm bank (deposits aided by religiously themed porn), her fury is muted by shame—shame that she was unable to provide children for Abe, and shame about the specter of looming loneliness now that Abe seems unlikely to recover from a recent stroke during his last visit to the bank.

Propelled by a guilty energy and, I would argue, genuine love for her husband, Linda discovers that Abe has a 23-year-old son, Raymond (Matt O'Leary), living in Florida; she out to find Raymond and bring him to his father's deathbed. Linda and Raymond's first encounter on his front porch, a conversation about whether there will or will not be any "Jesus s**t" if she's allowed inside, isn't promising. Once inside, Linda takes in the disheveled flophouse and notes with a bracing optimism, "This place could use a woman's touch." Raymond's response, "So could my pecker, but that's not going to happen," would have taken the wind out of a lesser woman. But Linda is undeterred.

Linda and Raymond (Matt O'Leary) take a road trip

Linda and Raymond (Matt O'Leary) take a road trip

What unspools is an Odd Couple road trip that functions like a 40-something's coming of age. Raymond is a jittery con-artist without anything, including good intentions. Linda, in the wake of her husband's deceit, is struggling to understand right and wrong on her own terms for the first time, navigating the world alone as a person who doesn't like to be alone. (Case in point: she calls up the front desk at one motel in the hopes of a good conversation.) During Linda and Raymond's circuitous route back to Texas, the two begin to exorcise (and exercise) their demons of regret and loneliness. They become friends, and then (maybe) each other's portal to a different life.

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All the while Pastor Peter is on their trail, anxious that disaster will befall the sheltered Linda. And indeed, his concerns are warranted. But his obsequious and then angry attention to Linda only serves to highlight for her the con he's pulling as a faithful pastor and brother-in-law. (One can imagine Peter's wife is not blind to his affections for her sister, and that this dynamic plays into her abrasive behavior.)

It's another testament to the nuance of the script that, despite what I would argue is mistreatment of his wife, Abe is a sympathetic character. After the reason for Linda's infertility is revealed, one is reminded that Abe and Linda both were taught hypocritical sexual ethics as young people. The family of God had failed them both for a long time.

In the closing minutes of Natural Selection, It's not at all clear what Linda's life will look like in the future. There is no neat resolution, just an old life that is fading and a new, unknown life on its way. Despite a motley crew of would-be suitors, the specter of loneliness again rears its head. But instead of retreating or deferring to another person's opinion, Linda goes out to meet it. Alone.

(Natural Selection is showing in limited release.)

Talk About It

Discussion starters
  1. Read Genesis 38. How do you think Tamar's story should be understood by Christians today? Does the passage suggest a direct application for the lives of faithful people today?
  2. In biblical times, women who couldn't bear children were often made outcasts. Discuss how the structure of your church's community life includes and/or excludes women who are not mothers.
  3. Consider how the relationship Raymond and Linda develops. How does their initial need for each other develop into a genuine bond? What do they see in and want from each other?
  4. How would you support, encourage, and/or counsel Linda at the end of Natural Selection? What would you say to Abe? To Raymond?

The Family Corner

For parents to consider

Natural Selection is rated R for sexual content, language, brief graphic nudity, a beating and some drug material. There's raunchy language, a masturbation scene, an extramarital sex scene, and a few brief instances of male and female nudity. There is some violence in the form of a beating.

Natural Selection
Our Rating
3 Stars - Good
Average Rating
 
(3 user ratings)ADD YOURSHelp
Mpaa Rating
R (for sexual content, language, brief graphic nudity, a beating and some drug material)
Genre
Directed By
Robbie Pickering
Run Time
1 hour 30 minutes
Cast
Matt O'Leary, Rachael Harris, John Diehl
Theatre Release
March 16, 2012 by Cinema Guild
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