At first glance, "Toe to Toe," writer-director Emily Abt's nicely done dramatic competition film about two girls on a prep school lacrosse team, might seem to be a story about race, with Louisa Krause as Jesse, the troubled blond teen temptress and Sonequa Martin as the serious African American senior Tosha, who keeps an unblinking eye on Princeton.
And race is definitely a theme running through the film, but in unexpected ways. Ultimately the film is really more about family and friendship and that nearly insatiable need all teenagers have for love and acceptance -- taking it wherever they can find it, no matter how destructive that choice may be. The odds are stacked against them -- in Jesse's case, it's an absentee mother more focused on her international activism than her deconstructing daughter; for Tosha, is the fight for any sort of chance for a child born into poverty.
Though the material is emotionally charged, Abt takes care with it, making the film a quiet relief rather than political polemic. And Krause and Martin both turn in solid performances. As Jesse and Tosha, they manage in their own distinctive ways to beat the odds. You hope these promising actors will be able to do the same in Hollywood.
