Molly Parker, left, and Olivia Harris in THE PLAYROOM (Freestyle Releasing)

In this mini Deadwood cast reunion, Molly Parker and John Hawkes play an alcoholic couple raising four kids. Set in the suburbs during 1975 (the time established by the newspaper headline that Patty Hearst has been captured), The Playroom sets up juxtaposition between the children and the adults in the Cantwell family over one tumultuous evening. The eldest child, teen Maggie (Olivia Harris), becomes the focal character as she straddles the line between adolescence and adulthood.

The Playroom begins as the children arrive home from school and ends as they leave for school the next morning. It is clear that school is more of a sanctuary for them—they come home to an empty house and proceed to clean a mess made by their parents the night before. Maggie, in charge, assumes more of the mother role to her siblings, urging them to do their homework. She distracts herself from her caretaker responsibilities through sexual exploration in the garage with her motorcycle-riding boyfriend, Ryan. Her oldest brother, Christian (Jonathon McClendon), hides away in his book. The two youngest, Janie and Sam (Alexandra Doke and Ian Veteto), are aware that something is off with their home life, but they can’t push their parents away as the older Maggie and Christian do. This is most evident in Janie, clearly her mother’s favorite.

When Donna Cantwell walks in the door, she immediately makes a drink, and tension in the house begins to rise. With nothing in the fridge, she starts making her family eggs, bacon, and toast, and it is apparent dinners like this happen often. Martin, a lawyer, comes home in a fairly good mood, but the  animosity Donna feels towards her husband makes the family dinner edgy. Maggie and her mother are also at odds, as Donna knows about Ryan, and Maggie’s passive-aggressiveness anger is aimed at Donna’s refusal to act like a more engaged mother.

Even before dinner has ended, friends of Donna and Martin arrive for cards and drinks. The kids are hurried off into the upstairs playroom as the adults get drunker and secrets about their intertwined relationships emerge. Maggie is most aware of her parents’ exploits throughout the night, even getting pulled into the drama, though all the children are affected by their self-absorption.

The Playroom is narrated by an imaginative story the Cantwell children make up in their attic playroom as their parents party with the other couple downstairs. Tellingly, their tale centers on orphaned children whose parents have died in a plane crash. This story comes to represent the vision the children have of a world on their own, and each of the four add their own arcs, depicting their particular childhood fantasies. The film both flash-forwards and returns back to the storytelling throughout, at first confusing the order of events. The effect creates a disconnect between what’s happening in the attic and downstairs, instead of pulling one deeper into psyches of the Cantwell family, though these scenes reveal the children at their most honest. Janie’s romantic take on their parentless adventure is particularly compelling.

Director Julia Dyer creates a very darkly atmospheric household. While The Playroom produces a pressure-filled situation, the events of the night, as well as its outcome, are somewhat predictable from very early on in the film. It takes away from the dramatic buildup, leaving one wanting a bit more explosive action towards the end. Yet the performances do draw one in, especially those of the four children, and Parker almost single-handedly expresses the adults’ complex relationship through her downward, alcohol-infused spiral.