Accidents Happen 2009

In 1974, the Conway family—Gloria Conway, Geena Davis; Ray Conway, Joel Tobeck; and their children Linda, Ivy Latimer; Gene, Johnny Xenos; Larry, Harry Cook; and Billy, Harrison Gilbertson—spend a night at a Connecticut drive-in watching The Three Stooges. Gloria is a foul-mouthed, fiercely protective matriarch who shoulders the family’s burdens with unflinching resolve, while Ray tends toward a calmer, more easygoing presence. The evening is tense from the start, complicated by a volatile neighbor, Douglas “Doug” Post, Sebastian Gregory, whom Gloria distrusts. In a reckless moment, Gene lures Doug up to the top of the drive-in screen, and the night spirals as Gene urina tes from the screen. Gloria slips in the chaos, and the crowd’s anger rises; a drive-in night meant to be routine becomes a fuse waiting to burn.

On the way home in the rain, a heated dispute among the children distracts Ray, and the car collides with a pickup truck. The family sustains injuries, but Linda is killed and Gene is left brain-damaged, paralyzed from the head down. The tragedy reverberates through the household, reshaping the bonds between a mother who feels the weight of every consequence and children who are learning how fragile safety can be. The crash doesn’t just sever lives; it redefines who is responsible for what happened, and Gloria’s sense of duty hardens into something almost immovable as the years pass.

Eight years pass, and the story jumps to 1982. Ray is divorced, and the once-stable family dynamic has fractured under the strain of grief and new resentments. Billy, now fifteen and still tethered to Doug, remains a key connection to a past that refuses to stay buried. The narrative follows a growing rift: Larry, now a belligerent alcoholic, relays the tensions that cloud the home, while Billy carries an uneasy mix of loyalty and defiance. A night spirals from a heated TV dinner dispute with Larry into a series of escalating misdeeds: a wet kitchen accident leaves Billy with a burned back, the result of a clash between brothers, with Doug unwittingly dragged into the trouble. The situation worsens as Billy and Doug slip into a reckless streak—streaking and theft—that culminates in a devastating incident: an almighty crash between a bowling ball and a moving car, resulting in the death of Doug’s father. The accident’s true causes remain buried under misperception and pride, and the family’s already fragile balance is thrown into sharper relief.

Gloria, who has spent years policing every fault and every moment that could unravel the family’s fragile stability, confronts Billy with a stern, if incomplete, view of reality. She punishes Billy by forbidding him from seeing Doug, a decision born of fear, anger, and an unwillingness to face the complicated truth that their own childhood actions contributed to the larger tragedy they now confront. Yet Gloria does not fully grasp that the car crash that took Doug’s father was connected to the earlier recklessness that had already changed their lives. The past and present begin to blur as the family’s secrets cling stubbornly to them, and the line between guilt and inevitability becomes harder to trace.

The tension reaches a turning point when Doug receives a mistaken note claiming his father committed suicide and that the insurance will not pay because of it. The two boys, pressed by guilt and the weight of memory, decide to confess to the police. Billy tells this to Gloria, who responds with a cold, devastating verdict: she calls him selfish and slaps him, then collapses into tears as the enormity of their shared history crashes down around them. The police interrogate Billy and Doug, and the family faces the heavy news that Gene has died, adding another layer of sorrow to their already battered lives.

It is revealed that, during Doug’s attendance at Gene’s funeral, Gloria had forgiven him for what happened—an acknowledgment that softens the bitterness of the past even as it complicates the present. The film closes with a quiet, haunting image: Billy takes the bowling ball found after the fatal accident and rolls it down the sidewalk, a small, almost ritual gesture that seems to seal the cycle of guilt, blame, and forgiveness that has defined the Conways’ story. The ending leaves a lingering question about whether the pain of the past can ever be fully laid to rest, or if it must be carried forward into each new moment of life.

Overall, the narrative unfolds at the intersection of family duty and personal failure, showing how a single night at a drive-in and a string of impulsive choices ripple outward to shape a household for years to come. The film sits with a measured, restrained tone, avoiding sensationalism while still exposing the raw ache of grief, responsibility, and the uncertain path toward reconciliation. Through the eyes of Gloria, Ray, Billy, Linda, Gene, Larry, and Doug, the story examines how love can be both a tether and a trap, how guilt can mutate into silence, and how forgiveness—when it finally arrives—comes with its own hard-won price.