Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling) has murdered his junkie girlfriend's autistic brother. Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle) is a struggling writer who teaches at the juvenile detention hall and wants to find out the "why".
"The worst part is knowing that there is goodness in people. Mostly it stays deep down and buried. Maybe we don't have God because we're scared of the bad stuff. Maybe we're really scared of the good stuff. Because if there's no God, well, that means it's inside of us and we could be good all the time if we wanted. So when we do bad things, it'd be because we want to or because we have to. Or maybe we just need the bad stuff to remind us what the good stuff is in the first place." - Leland
Leland lives with his mother (Lena Olin). His father (Kevin Spacey) is a famous author who is emotionally detached and sends his son plane tickets to "anywhere in the world" he isn't. The family of the dead boy all have their own problems. Becky is a junkie, Julie wants to break up from her boyfriend who has been living with her family since his mother died and the parents seem to have problems with their marriage (although this isn't addressed directly). Pearl is cheating on his girlfriend.
This is a classic human story with great performances from everybody. Ryan Gosling has a certain quality where he looks like a sad puppy but there's a menace in his eyes. My only complaint is that Lena Olin wasn't used enough. 5 halos.