Two years before hitting his career jackpot in HBO’s "Entourage", Adrian Grenier directed a little documentary about fatherhood and the importance the paternal figure plays in a boy’s development called Shot in the Dark. Starting with rough interviews of fathers and sons around the country, Shot in the Dark transitions to Grenier’s own quest to understand what a father is and to track down his own biological father. The trip sees him tracing his father back through various family members to an odd encounter that seems to affirm the idea that the role has an established cultural meaning but an ambiguous significance when it comes to how a father helps to define his children.
Raised by his mother, whom he cites as providing a surrogate father-figure in what she did for him, Adrian’s impression of his father is spotty at best, but it’s hard to deny the negative tones that influence it. His mother tells the story her way, and the father figures she put in place throughout his life have repeated it, all while filling the gap the best that they could. Apparently, though, there’s no substitute for the real thing. The man who went by the title of “uncle” receives a lot of credit for doing the things a father normally does like taking him to ball games or imparting that unique brand of masculine wisdom and swagger that a male presence is known for possessing. Without getting into a philosophical argument about the defining of gender roles, let it just be said that this is the basic take on fatherhood as it’s presented in the film.
Adrian’s voyage takes him from New York to Lancaster, Ohio, where his biological father, John, lives with his family. On the way there, they stop at the home of Adrian’s relatives and his mother’s, and reassert, for the sake of the audience, exactly what her take on the events surrounding Adrian’s birth amount to. Her friends and family also pitch in their two cents, and the story becomes a little bit clearer as viewpoints with slightly less bias come into play. Did she not want to get married? Was it his choice? Did she tell him she didn’t want him around as Adrian’s father? The story fills in with bits and pieces and gradually we understand what happened in their makeshift romance and how it all played out. When John finally appears, it’s an incredibly awkward set of scenes of a man, who comes across as neither too bright nor ill-intentioned, but rather just a guy who accepted the situation for what it was and then went the other direction.
Shot in the Dark spends all of its time in Adrian’s father’s baby-mama drama and never really takes a final step back to examine where his father’s choices fall in the spectrum of what a parent’s responsibilities are. It starts with that wider focus, but it never returns there with any significant force to give the film’s midsection any weight and consequently the film starts with a thoughtful premise but then loses itself, as if overwhelmed with how it plays out, and never climbs back out of focus to take stock of what it captured. We hear Adrian’s thoughts on what he expected to find and how he feels about the reality of the situation that has revealed itself to him, but he seems content, as the film’s director, to just leave it at that, which is a shame. Shot in the Dark had a unique opportunity to chronicle the formation of Adrian’s perception of fatherhood in a wider perspective, but it couldn’t seal the deal.
Adding another layer to the frustration wrought by Shot in the Dark is the presence of the obnoxious Jonathan Davidson, offering his less-than-perfect advice along the way and interjecting a noticeable level of hostility and negativity into some of the encounters with Adrian’s father.
Overall, Shot in the Dark is worth a view as it manages to put together an above par look at the subject at hand, but it’s kept from being truly memorable and worthwhile due to its half-baked conclusion.
DVD Bonus Features:
The disc is fairly packed with extras including a commentary track with Grenier, Davidson, and Jim Mol, Adrian and others discussing the meaning of fatherhood during the shooting of the “Drive Me Crazy” music video, an interview with Jonathan Davidson and his daughter, and a retrospective update where Adrian talks with John and his family about what has happened in the ten years since the filming of the documentary. It’s almost worth considering editing the latter featurette onto the end of the film as it offers a better sense of closure and progress than how the film currently ends.
"Shot in the Dark" is on sale June 14, 2011 and is not rated. Documentary. Directed by Adrian Grenier. Starring Adrian Grenier.
