Word: hoge
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...Hoge, a native of Colorado, was working as a teacher in the junvenile detention center when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed their classmates and teachers at Columbine High School in his home state. He was immediately interested in the media attention the killers received, and how the town of Littleton unraveled. He began writing soon afterwards, and his earnestness as he describes the writing process and Leland’s character reveals a true sense of advocacy for kids who are robbed of their humanity from the public...
While the problem of presenting the murderer in a highly sympathetic light has been hotly contested by mothers of autistic children on message boards all over the Internet, Hoge seems uninterested in situating his film in line with Bowling for Columbine or any similarly polemical works. “It’s a film more than it’s a message,” he says...
...most obvious stand-in for Hoge himself in Leland seems to be Pearl (Don Cheadle), a juvenile prison teacher who befriends the incarcerated Leland. When an interviewer asks which character Hoge related to most, the nearby Malone cracks a smile...
...guess,” she says playfully. “I bet you’d be wrong,” replies Hoge, and she is. It’s not Pearl, but rather Leland’s expat father Albert, who, having abandoned his family to live and write in France, returns after the murder. Though the motivations of Albert, portrayed with steely sullenness by Kevin Spacey, are unclear, there are allusions that he may smell material for a new novel...
Spacey, who additionally took on the duties of executive producer, appears only briefly in the film, but for many viewers leaves the most memorable impression. “Nobody really says anything negative about Leland,” Hoge says. “But a lot of people say, ‘Oh God, Albert, what a terrible person,’ and I feel like ‘No, not at all,’ and I sort of get where he’s coming from...