Based on Christopher Shinn’s play of the same name, “Four” is a movie about four people looking to score: young inarticulate white high school boy June, a forty-something black married man Joe, Joe’s daughter Abigayle and a high school basketball player Dexter.

June (Emory Cohen) is a young man uncomfortable in his own skin–the kind that mumbles and has no opinions he’s willing to express. He doesn’t seem out to his parents and his parents are somewhat off. After all, consider his name. June, who was named by his father because he was supposed to be born in June, but arrived premature in April. His mother wanted to name him Franklin. His mother had some common sense, but the father prevailed. What does that say?

At the beginning of the movie, his family is having a barbecue, but the brooding teen is standing inside the house looking out. He tells a woman, supposedly his mother (Kathryn Meisle), he wants to go out and this is the start of his journey.

He’s going to meet someone, a much older man that he “met” on the Internet.

Joe (Wendell Pierce) has told his family he’s in Boston at a conference, but he’s really on the make. He’s in the closet and on the prowl for some young ass. Joe talks the talk and is the voice of reason, counseling June, but can a middle-aged man really mean well if he’s hooking up with a boy? Joe is a practiced predator, perhaps the kind you might have seen on Chris Hansen’s “To Catch a Predator.”

Most of the chatter comes from Joe. He tells June, “I love driving. It’s got to be the most American thing there is.”

When he says they are “likely to see some fireworks here” and June responds, “it’s illegal here,” how can the audience not be thinking of sexual fireworks?

Joe acknowledges, “We’re breaking the law. This state has adultery laws.” And what about preying on kids? Maybe June is legal in whatever state these four are in.

Joe tells June, “I just love motels, just do” because in motels, you “either re-invent yourself or you become yourself.”

Abigayle (Aja Naomi King) is an attractive dark-skinned young woman, at home taking care of her mother who seems to have slipped into a deep depression, rarely leaving home. Abigayle talks to her father, Joe, on her cellphone. He’s supposed to be in Boston at a conference, giving the white folk what for. He’s ennobled his forays into adultery and pedastry with a cover of multiculturalism.

Abigayle was waiting for her father’s check-up call before she leaves with Dexter (E.J. Bonilla) to go to his place. The parallel story lines of lust has Abigail and Joe both having sex and orgasms at the same time on split screens and in each case, they are the aggressors.  June quickly gets up and dressed. He isn’t interested in cuddling and neither is Abigayle.

Dexter isn’t just a young man looking for some sex; he seems genuinely concerned about Abigayle and he makes two things clear: he came from a mixed race neighborhood and despite his olive complexion and cornrows, he’s not black, but he wishes he was. Dexter seems more interested in enjoying the emotional intimacy of the after-glow of sex, but he takes Abigayle home because she says she’s supposed to work. By this she means take care of her mother, a burden left upon her by her father.

Dexter has the misfortune of being the cause of Abigayle’s uncovering of her father’s ruse. Abigayle keeps it in–not telling Dexter what she now knows.

This is an unsettling and sad movie with sensitive portrayals by the actors in the four major roles. It’s about one night and doesn’t bother to tie up the loose ends. After tonight we know that things are not going to be the same and that Joe’s carefully planned double-life is going to fall apart and we suspect that his wife’s depression might hinge on what she suspects and what Abigayle knows.

“Four” was written by Shinn when he was 23 years old and premiered as a play eight years ago. In 2005 he was given a Guggenheim Fellowship for playwriting and about the same time, he won an OBIE . This play this movie was based on was originally set in Shinn’s hometown, Hartford, Connecticut.

Director Joshua Sanchez was born in Houston, Texas, but currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

This movie is an impressive show of young talent and well worth seeing. “Four” screened on Friday, but will be shown again on Monday, 18 June 2012 at 9:40 p.. at the Regal Cinemas 13 in Downtown Los Angeles.