Reality Fiction

Andrew Wagner's "The Talent Given Us" turns the idea of reality TV on its head. Wagner's film stars his own family members in a scripted, fictional story. However, I kept wondering which scenes or conversations were real or ad-libbed. With reality TV, on the other hand, I find myself thinking every scene or piece of dialogue is fake. "The Talent Given Us," which was released in 2004, is about an older couple who on a whim travel across the U.S. to visit their son. During the journey, the couple's past, present, and future are all dredged up. Wagner made a wise choice to use his family as actors, because I don't think that this by-the-numbers storyline would've have come to such vibrant life if he hadn't cast his real-life parents.