AROUND THE BEND
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Warner Independent Pictures
Grade: B+
Directed by: Jordan Roberts
Written by: Jordan Roberts
Cast: Michael Caine, Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas, Jonah
Bobo, Glenn Headley
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 8/19/04
Forget about "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle." Despite all
the appropriately vulgar humor of that movie, the
two best friends don't really learn anything more about each
other as they search for the elusive burger joint. Think
instead about a film that could be called Jason, Turner & Zack
go to KFC. The humor is there throughout, along with
the pathos, but "Around the Bend" is no sit-com. The laughs are
evoked naturally from world class actors Michael
Caine, Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas–and an
extraordinary performance from seven-year-old Jonah Bobo–as
two members of a four-generation family plow through angst
and estrangement to sort out the tensions between them
and to grow up as well.
Despite his brief time on screen, Michael Caine in the role of
great-grandad, granddad and father Henry Lair anchors
the story, which is inspired by writer-director Jordan Roberts's
own experience with a father who was a traveling
man. Indulging himself the in the sorts of quirks that
octagenarians are entitled to give vent to, Henry, who has been
planning his own death for some time, gets a brilliant idea to
reunite his own son and grandson when Henry's son
Turner Lair (Christopher Walker) shows up at his California digs
after having disappeared for the past thirty years.
The great mystery of his long sabbatical gets explored only in
the concluding moments, but until then, we join the
newly arrived Turner with Turner's 32-year-old son, Jason (Josh
Lucas), seven year old Zack Lair (Jonah Bobo), and
Henry himself. Henry, however, appears at this point as ashes
in a vase, which according to his dying wish are to be
scattered throughout a chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets
principally in New Mexico.
In his directing debut, Roberts freely mixes a subject of
considerable seriousness with ample humor, allowing some
of the side characters to be the butt of his jokes including
Henry's European nurse Katrina (Glenn Headly), who
brings her Danish point of view about sex to the screen, and a
motel manager who cries each time she looks at a
container situated in the registration room with the remains of
her husband.
Though wracked by guilt, Christopher Walken's milks more
humor in his role than would have been expected from a
less professional actor, Josh Lucas appropriately plays a bank
manager whose tension is related more to unfinished
family business than to anxieties on the job. The real
scene-stealer, however, is seven-year-old Jonah Bobo (a New
Yorker I'm proud to say), an absolute natural as the kid who sit
in the back seat of the old Volkswagon bus soaking
up the strange things that the adults are talking about up front.
On location scenery in New Mexico, photographed by
Michael Grady, is enough to prove that the state is indeed the
Land of Enchantment–as is the entire film.
Rated R. 85 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
at harveycritic@cs.com
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