steal me

In Steal Me, writer/director Melissa Painter (Admissions, Wildflowers) has crafted a refreshingly honest portrayal of relationships - sexual and otherwise - around a 15-year-old kleptomaniac boy, Jake (Danny Alexander), who arrives in a small Montana town searching for his prostitute mother.

Through Jake’s trouble of tracking down his mother, he befriends Tucker (Hunter Parrish), a corn-fed local boy who catches Jake red-handed stealing the radio right out of his truck. After a foot chase and a brief scuffle, the boys ultimately become friends, discovering that each has something the other wants -- Jake has a quiet mystery and total freedom, while Tucker has stability and a happy home. At first, Jake brings Tucker out of his shell, convincing him to pursue his longtime crush, Lily Rose (Paz de la Huerta). However, when Tucker’s family reluctantly takes Jake in, offering him food, shelter and eventually a job, things grow more complicated.

Tucker’s mother, Sarah (Cara Seymour), uneasy about Jake being there insists he sleep in the barn, but over time a bond begins to grow. Jake, however, is an accomplished and incorrigible thief, and begins stealing small items around the house, not because they are valuable, but for the fetish factor and sentimental value.

Soon he meets the neighbor, Grace (Toby Poser), a newly single mom twice his age. An affair ensues; one that is romantic from Jake’s perspective, but simply sexual from Grace’s point of view.

Eventually, Sarah catches them in the act, furious with Grace she demands that she keep her hands off Jake. Later Sarah consoles him as he lay in her lap in tears. Unable to differentiate between motherly affection and sexual undertones, Jake hits on Sarah, but she quickly states she cares for him just as a kid. Moments after Tucker catches his mother in the act of comforting Jake and thinks it’s something more; in turn, he begins to shut Jake out of his life.

Jake turns to the local troublemakers for friendship, only to be provoked into a breaking and entering scheme, where they set him up by tipping off the cops. He gets away without being caught, but comes home to discover the police had been there – prompting Tucker’s parents to go through Jake’s belongings in the barn. When he notices that they’ve found his box of stolen trinkets, he runs away in humiliation, not realizing that they were touched by their discovery. Certain they had finally learned his horrible secret, that he is a bad kid at heart, Jake sets back to a lonely life on the road. -- © Cineville Films and Picture Entertainment Production