When a young girl's sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life-chaotic, real and on the loose. As the town descends into chaos, her family must reunite and stop the monsters they never meant to unleash. (from IMDb)

Art can be therapy. Musicians and fine artists alike know this to be true. Heck, I take to the pencil quite frequently to calm the storm in my head; it can be quite effective. Grief is surprisingly the driving force behind the new Angel Studios family film, Sketch. The story revolves around a widower named Taylor Wyatt - played by Tony Hale - who is trying to carry on raising his two kids, Amber and Jack, in the fallout of losing their mom. Amber has a love for doodling and sketching, and the film opens with her being reprimanded for having drawn the violent image of a character killing another student. The school's counselor commends her for putting her feelings to paper instead of acting on them, and hands her a fresh sketchbook to doodle in. If you've ever doodled to get your feelings out, you'll understand where young Amber is coming from.

Meanwhile, her slightly older brother, Jack, is out in the woods playing a game on his phone when he accidentally trips and falls down a hill, landing hard near a pond - where his phone ended up falling into. He notices a nasty cut on his palm, and then fishes his phone out of the pond and notices the screen is badly cracked. Within seconds, he looks again to find the phone's screen is miraculously fixed. Later that night, he sees the scrape on his palm is gone, too. Without spoiling too much, Jack becomes very interested in the powers of this mysterious pond, and when Amber follows him one night, sketchbook in tow, she accidentally drops it in the pond... causing all the pages of the book to go blank. So where did the sketches go?

You guessed it; the sketches merged with the magical waters of the pond and they were brought to life. Now, the Wyatt family is literally running from Amber's grief monsters and have to band together to save them. It's one big gigantic metaphor that the film doesn't hide behind, but leans into. So what may surprise viewers more than anything is how much grief and sadness and confronting them comes into play with this movie. Furthermore, the horrors of Amber's sketches coming to life is often pretty scary - if not entirely disturbing - at times. And it seems to even hint at - but never confirms - that maybe some people perished because of these monsters (like them coming upon an empty truck which one of the deadly monsters is nearby). They make it very clear that these monsters intend to do harm to people, so that adds an extra layer of terror to Sketch.

The story spends a good amount on Hale's grieving father character, but a lot of focus is given to Amber, Jack and their peer Bowan - who the siblings have a love/hate frenemy-ship with. The movie often captures some legit Stranger Things / Goosebumps / Super 8 vibes, with more of a PG tone than the edgier presentation of those movies (and show). Sketch oozes youthful charm, but like Joe in Super 8, the loss of the kids' mother is something that looms over everything. Hale is known most of all for being a comedic actor - be it his role as Buster in Arrested Development, or the beloved voice of Forky in Toy Story 4 (or even a burned-out office drone in Switchfoot's delightful "Awakening" music video) - but most of his presence here is steeped in drama and sadness. There's some occasional humor, but its more subtle and reactionary to situations. The humor never betrays Taylor's grief.

With all that said, Sketch is a very, very heavy movie thematically. The ending has a bittersweet resolution where things aren't just magically fixed, as it forces our characters to lean into each other while facing their struggles with grief. This is a meaty, weighty film with lots to unpack. If you're struggling with grief right now yourself, there's a good chance this movie will just poke the ache, but there's enough hope weaved throughout it, and in its resolution, that it can encourage the viewer, too. Just be warned, parents; you expect a really heavy film thematically - and some surprisingly scary moments.

The content for Sketch is definitely PG. Some "light" horror moments are scattered throughout the film - with some of the worst being a scene where dozens and dozens of mini, red one-eyed spiders -- called "Eyeders" -- are swarming around the Wyatt home, especially the walls. Once they're introduced, they're sprinkled throughout the film. The most intense sequence is when the kids are overcome by a swarm of them in the house. Possibly the most disturbing creature is a humanoid monster that hides beneath a black hoodie and walks in a zombie-like way. It menaces the kids in the climax of the film - even choking one of them at one point - and it's pretty intense stuff. Let's just say: Sketch is most appropriate for the older kids. I was pretty surprised by the horror elements of the story.

There's also a surprising amount of profanity. It's not heavy, but the movie doesn't shy too much away from including some. Taylor says most of an "S" word before it's only slightly cut off, and the rest of the time it's stuff like "h*ll" or "dumb*ss" and a couple of "Oh G-d." Angel Studios is known for being family friendly with a lot of their programming - and in a lot of ways they are - but while they've had a reputation for putting out "Christian" content, I would say there's zero connection with this film to Christianity. I'm not saying that's a bad thing; just don't go into it expecting there to be a one-minute monlogue about how a character's faith in Jesus fixed everything. However, Christian music fans may find it interesting (if they don't know already) that Christian music legend Steve Taylor is a producer on this movie. While he hasn't directed a movie in a while (Blue Like Jazz is among his credits), it's nice to see his name still attached to a meaningful film.

Sketch is a truly unique movie that - while it has the vibe of some familiar movies - never feels like you've seen it before. It's fresh and also deeply impactful. The emotional elements are rich, and the performances are solid. However they found these kids for this movie was an inspired move, too. I'd say it's a very rewatchable movie, but you'll have to be prepared to also take on the emotional weight each time. It's bold, entertaining, heartbreaking, but also fresh and fun... just know you'll probably need a box of tissues handy as well.