While aspects of the story seem familiar, as coming-of-age stories often do, the richness of the characters and themes in "Nearing Grace" inspire director Rick Rosenthal and his cast to create a film with terrific emotional energy and larkish humor. At the top of the list of things the filmmakers did right is casting Gregory Smith, a young actor perhaps best known for his role on the WB Network series "Everwood," in the lead role of Henry Nearing. Smith establishes an intimacy with his audience, making transparent his character's raw feelings even as he hides them from other characters behind a wall of irony and reticence.

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