A festival favourite, Bart Freundlich's Sundance rave "The Myth of Fingerprints" has Janet Maslin of the New York Times proclaiming it "a very accomplished first feature". This assessment, I am happy to report, is very true. For a first time writer-director, Freundlich has crafted a very subtle, nuanced film about the tragedy of the modern American family, and has elicited moving ensemble work from a very polished cast that includes a mix of fresh and familiar faces. However, this is not a film to go stark raving mad over. Given the emotional anal-retentiveness of most of the characters, such a reaction would be highly inappropriate to say the least.

After the standard home-movie montage with over-laying credits, the film proper opens with Warren (a scraggly, unshaved Noah Wyle) talking to his shrink, saying he's "ready to go home" because he no longer remembers why he shouldn't. Dour and miserable, he harbours a grudge against his family. It's thanksgiving weekend, and he arrives a day early to meet his stone-faced, emotionally distant father Hal (Roy Scheider) who leaves him standing out in the cold instead of letting him in. The next day, little sister Leigh (Laurel Holloman, soon to be seen in Mark Wahlberg's vehicle, "Boogie Nights") spies witchy older sister Mia (the luminous Julianne Moore) having sex on the train with meek shrink boyfriend Elliot (Brian Kerwin). In fact, sex seems to be the main thing on the family's mind as they gather together for the first time in three years: Jake (Michael Vartan) and Margaret (Hope Davis) enjoy vehicular sex, before adjourning to a creaky bed at home; Mia and soon join in, and even mom Lena (Blythe Danner) and dad get in on the action. The only ones who don't seem to be getting any are cos she's too young, and Warren, who's still aching for Daphne (Arija Bareikis) the girlfriend he left behind three years ago. At this point in the film, you begin to wonder why people actually think highly of this film, but you decide to soldier on nonetheless.

When Daphne returns, Warren meets with her and gradually gets drawn out of his shell-shocked state although the reason for their initial separation is not revealed. Meanwhile, Mia meets a childhood sweetheart, Cezanne (a goofy James LeGros) who sees beyond her brittle and unhappy exterior, and who slowly draws forth her embedded warmth and cheerfulness. Also, Jake begins to feel the stirrings of love for Margaret, something that scares him, yet attracts him at the same time. Over the course of thanksgiving, relationships come apart and come together, and the ugly secret that once tore Warren away from Daphne surfaces and boils over in the face of the family patriarch.

Slight and charming, Freundlich's film relies heavily on the appealing cast to carry the standard-issue material through. Some of the lines are fresh, and there are some surprising plot developments, but nothing really earth-shattering happens. Even the deep dark secret at the heart of the story turns out to be not so horrendous after-all. And it is precisely this modesty of scope and structure that makes the film work so well as it does. Freundlich's script reflects many familial truisms, and he understands acutely that the things that tear people apart are not the major nor dramatic theatrical sins that are commonly staged onscreen, but rather, some rather small, insignificant occurrences that are left to fester and grow in depth and magnitude till all hell breaks loose - but again, with restraint, Freundlich refuses to dumb down and make his film just another indie wannabe. Instead, the film's emotional centre is not the pedestrian plot's troughs and peaks, but the strength of the excellent performances rendered by the talented cast.

Leading the pack of good performances, Julianne Moore shines in the handful of scenes she is given. Bravely displaying the ugly side of Mia, she manages to tap into the character's core and display it honestly without fanfare nor pomp. Extraordinarily focused, she toes the fine line of comedy and tragedy with expert ease - the fact that she and director Freundlich are an item may have helped in their communication. However, Freundlich is equally successful with the rest of the cast. Danner and Scheider add yet another character to their galleries of accomplished performances, whilst Kerwin, Davis, Bareikis and Holloman make the most of their minor roles. Noah Wyle comes into his own very nicely as the swearing, smoking and resolutely un-Carter-like Warren, a tricky task considering the strong public image he already is saddled with. His performance is full of bottled rage and desperate pleas, and together with Moore, he stands out from the crowd. LeGros has the trickiest part, a mere slip of a character, which he makes the most of, whilst Vartan (a French actor who resembles Edward Burns) is sometimes given too little to work with for him to do more than look good onscreen.

"The Myth of Fingerprints" will never be a big hit nor a crowd-pleaser, but be glad because its strengths are made up of the ingredients most hits never even come close to harnessing. A low-key gem.