Tully (2002)

Through the eyes of local heartthrob Tully Coates Jr., a world is revealed where secrets are kept close beneath wide open skies as a distant father and his two sons struggle with a past that has come back to haunt them. The loss of their mother years ago has left the Coates boys adrift, each longing for a connection to a woman they never knew. A separation has grown between Tully and his reclusive father, who lives in isolation even as he works side by side with his sons. Determined not to meet the same lonely fate, Tully runs wild with the women in town though he is careful to keep them all at a safe distance. Tully’s shy younger brother Earl is just the opposite, possessing an emotional maturity to comprehend things that Tully has yet to see or feel. In his quiet way, Earl is in Tully’s shadow--but Earl knows something that Tully may not yet be able to handle. The one thing that Tully and Earl do have in common is an appreciation for Earl’s straight-talking best friend Ella, a young woman smart enough to refuse overtures from a womanizer like Tully and strong enough to become his friend. As Earl watches warily, Tully becomes closer to Ella than anyone expected--but when devastating news pushes Tully into her arms, he runs away before he can begin to feel what might be true love. Tully’s discovery of a long buried secret that now threatens his family and their farm brings him to confront his father about the ghosts of a past that have pushed them apart.