Personal Effects

Country: US
Genre: Drama
Released: 2009
Rating: M
Format: (WS)

College wrestler Walter (Ashton Kutcher) has returned to the rainy city he calls home in the wake of his sister's murder to attend her killer's trial. Down the courtroom hall, Linda (Michelle Pfeiffer) is attending the trial of her husband's murderer while coping with raising her difficult and deaf teenage son Clay (Spencer Hudson). Walter and Linda meet at a grief support group also attended by Walter's mother Gloria (Kathy Bates), and soon they find themselves leaning on each other for moral, and ultimately sexual, support. Stoic to a fault, Walter says very little and is a failure as a chicken-suited walking billboard for a local fast food place. He only comes to life in the weight room and when he decides to help channel some of Spencer's rage by coaching him on the high school wrestling team. He also assists Linda with the weddings she organizes at the local community center. They're nice distractions, but he is still haunted by the particularly gruesome death of his sister (raped, killed, and burned), and wants revenge on the developmentally disabled man accused of the crime.