An unexpected bond forms between two women when their sons are killed in an explosion at a local shopping mall. When the police find evidence of a bomb, one of the sons, a Muslim American, becomes the prime suspect, threatening the two mothers' new friendship and forcing them to question how well they knew their own children.
"Torn capitalizes on a gripping and emotional storyline to deliver a terrific ending." - Tony Hicks, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
"Slowly uncovering the prejudices that calamity can unleash, Michael Richter's screenplay lays bare the damage wrought by Sept. 11 while deftly dodging hysteria, wondering how we differentiate between innocent teenage behaviors and dangerous red flags. Most of all, it wonders if we can ever fully know the people we live with, leaving the question to resonate as deeply as the two women's grief." - Jeannette Catsoulis, THE NEW YORK TIMES
"A great accomplishment." - John Oursler, THE VILLAGE VOICE
"A terse, wonderfully observant and unsentimental screenplay by Michael Richter... Richter tells the tale with admirable economy-the film runs 80 minutes-as well as an unstressed but devastating emotional authenticity. He could have ended his film with the question of the boys' culpability unanswered and that ambiguity would have been sufficient, but instead he reveals the truth, and the revelation is breathtakingly poignant." - David Noh, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"A genuinely unsettling microcosm of modern terrorism... Torn rings with the sound of quiet truth." - Andrew Lapin, THE DISSOLVE
"Michael Richter's screenplay weaves together its various themes and such subplots as Lea's tentatively resuming a relationship with her long estranged ex-husband (Patrick St. Esprit) with intelligence and sensitivity, not to mention an uncommon succinctness (the film runs a scant 80 min). The relationships between the complex characters are well drawn, and the ironic ending manages to touchingly upend our expectations." - Frank Scheck, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
