In the beautifully acted, subtly directed drama "Winter Solstice," words are at a premium -- appropriate enough for the late-adolescent brothers at its center. Teenage males just out of (or still chafing in) high school don't typically offer a huge number of words to the world.

		"Winter Solstice" Rating: R for language. Starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Aaron Stanford, Mark Webber, Allison Janney. Director: Josh Sternfeld. "Winter Solstice" Web site Family Film Guide review of "Winter Solstice" A review from a family perspective Rated: R. Suitable for: Mature high schoolers, older teens and adults. What you should know: Director Josh Sternfeld's lovely coming-of-age drama stars Anthony LaPaglia as the widower-father of two very different brothers, one of whom prompts an emotional crisis by announcing his intention to leave their small-town New Jersey home. Language: Fairly frequent use of the F-word. Sexual situations/nudity: None. Violence: None. Alcohol and drug use: Some brief, unremarkable beer-drinking and pot-smoking. More Family Film Guide reviews

Gabe and Pete Winters come by their "strong, silent types" honestly. Their dad, Jim, a self-employed landscaper and still-sad widower, is -- by nature and tragedy -- a man of even fewer words than his sons. Which is not to say they have any pivotal "communication problem." Silent does not imply uncommunicative. Most of their feelings, if not all of their thoughts, are clearly conveyed.

Our opening encounter with them, for instance, has Jim washing dinner dishes while the boys are watching baseball in the TV room. The game takes a sour turn. A fuss over the channel or the reception escalates a bit ominously. Will it stay playful or turn violent? We'll find out nonverbally.

Hard-working Gabe (Aaron Stanford) is a motivated guy with a steady girlfriend. Younger bro Pete (Mark Webber) is a goof-off with a hearing impairment that's no excuse for his detentions and lousy performance at school. They couldn't be more dissimilar, but there's never any doubt about the reciprocal love among them and their father. That's not the point here, as it is in your garden- variety coming-of-age film. The point is their delicious dynamic.

When Jim (Anthony LaPaglia) suggests a guy-thing outdoor outing for the weekend, it gets an evasive, sitting ovation from his sons. They can be Allies or Axis, a coalition of the willing or unwilling, at a moment's unspoken notice, depending on the serious or comic issue.

Gabe's plot-driving issue is serious. "I can't get anything STARTED here ...," he says. He is trying to do the hard thing Pete and Jim haven't done: make a decision to change and act on it.

Enter a needy new neighbor, clumsily moving in -- Molly-with-the-dolly-request (Allison Janney), as empathetically real as everybody else in a film full of "regular" folks instead of formulaic good and bad guys. Molly's sweet diffidence livens up the small-town boredom of Jim's life but also his parental anger. When the boys fail to show as promised at her awkward little dinner party, Jim leaves abruptly and storms home to throw their mattresses and selfish rear-ends out on the lawn. But that sad evening scene dovetails perfectly into a funny follow-up the morning after.

In the small, brilliantly crafted role of Pete's history teacher, Ron Livingston nearly steals the show. Pete waltzes in late as usual and takes a seat at the far back of a nearly empty classroom. "Could you do me a favor and sit a little closer?" Livingston asks. "Shouldn't my seat be my choice?" is Pete's answer-with-attitude. The winner (and resolution) of their stare-down is wonderfully silent.

Not so in their fine duel later:

"Why did the Mongols -- poised to conquer all of Europe in 1238 -- suddenly turn around and go home?"

Pete doesn't know.

"What if I give you the day off?"

Pete knows.

There's not a character large or small who doesn't ring true, and not a bad performance in the lot. The male-minimal-emotional portrayals of LaPaglia, Stanford and Webber are nonetheless passionate. It's an "actor's film," indeed, but couldn't be without the sure-handed restraint of director Josh Sternfeld, whose "Winter Solstice" is as natural -- and naturalistic -- as its unsullied New Jersey scenery. (And how often do you hear the word "unsullied" applied to New Jersey scenery?)

Many stories leave us unsatisfyingly with untied loose ends, but this refreshing four-character study is satisfying for that very reason and this little revelation: In real rather than film life, you can't tie up loose ends and un-tie knots at the same time.