Who's who, and what's where

Scene by scene we see him younger: getting quiet at his son's graduation dinner, making up a bedtime story about a scared dragon, winning the first-word contest, and sitting alone in the nursery at 3 AM promising a newborn he'll love him every day of his life. The film is his, told backwards from his son's funeral.

We meet him in reverse: graduating college with interviews lined up in the city, a gap-toothed kid who wants the scared dragon story again, a toddler whose first word is "Dada," and a sleeping newborn. The film begins at his funeral.

Earlier, she and David are exhausted new parents competing over which word Marcus will say first. She loses, and calls Marcus a traitor.

He's only a story David tells, but his line, "this car doesn't care if you're scared. But I do," is the kind of father David is trying to be.

In David's telling, maybe Rex stays away because he's afraid of hurting something so delicate, or of making it fly away. One day a butterfly lands on his nose and stays.

It's the same kind of lot where David's father taught him.

Afterward, in the parking lot, Marcus asks his dad if he's okay.

David tucks Marcus in here and whispers, "Sweet dreams, little dragon."

David sits by the crib and talks to his sleeping son in a whisper.