Rites of Passage is a dramatic thriller that fills you with a sense of dread early in the story and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end.

Each time you think you have everything figured out, the story takes a turn and heads in a different direction. Likewise, the characters are dynamic. You'll get them all figured out and they'll suddenly show you a radically different side of their personality.

You can't stop watching this movie. It forces you to watch -- to resolve the questions and issues that arise in the beginning.

The story: Del Farley (Dean Stockwell), restaurant owner and family man, gets caught at a motel with his mistress by his oldest son, Del Jr. (Robert Glen Keith). Del takes DJ to the family's cabin in the mountains for a fishing trip to work things out.

Del and DJ find the other son, Campbell (Jason Behr), already at the cabin. Their relationship has been estranged since Del caught Campbell with his lover, Billy. Del attacked Billy and Campbell ran away from his family. He has since avoided them. Now, he has come face-to-face with them.

Before Del and sons have a chance to fight things out, a strange man, Frank Dabbo (James Remar) arrives with a younger man, Red (Jaimz Woolvett), claiming to be his son. They say they had car trouble and got stranded. They need to use the telephone.

It soon becomes apparent that the older man is a psychopath set on pushing Del into a confrontation. We learn that the two escaped from prison and came to the mountain to retrieve $500,000 that Dabbo stashed in a sawmill that is being torn down.

I'm not going to reveal any more of the story to you, but it goes deep and wide. This is an excellent piece of writing and was pulled together nicely for an enjoyable film. There are a couple of parts that might have been edited out, but it would have taken away some of the insight into the characters, so I believe this as good as the editing could have gotten without losing vital parts.

The photography is solid, clean, and clear. No fancy stuff, just top-of-the-line professional quality. That's what I like and how I like it. There isn't much for special effects or makeup, just intense acting.

Oh, the intensity of the acting. Wow! Behr is magnificent. He makes you feel his pain and agony. By the time this movie ends, you feel as if you know everything about him and understand him thoroughly. He is fabulous in this role. Stockwell is also marvelous. He does a fantastic job of showing the dualities and conflicts within parents (and most people in general) over loving someone intensely but disagreeing vehemently with the choices they are making in their life. Stockwell shined in this role.

Rites of Passage is a tense, driven movie with surprises and twists from beginning to end. This is for those times when you want a deep, serious, thought-provoking film. It delivers the goods.