Cab to Canada

Wow! Maureen O'Hara plays a lonely elderly person named Katherine Eure, who has lived quite a life over the past several decades hob nobbing with the rich and famous, but sadly, due to her strength and stamina she apparently has outlived all of her closest friends and she relies on her many memories for her past happy life as a successful and beautiful magazine model in her younger days.

After attending yet another funeral of one of her oldest and dearest friends Katherine has one of thos "ah hah" moments and she decides to hire a cab to take her back to some of the memorable locations she enjoyed with her late companion(s). On a whim she just decides to have the local hack, take her from one location after another, staying in hotels over night.

The cab driver who is randomly selected for that first pick up of Katherine is a gruff and well built young man named Mike Donahue (Jason Beghe) who leases his current cab but has ambitions to one day own his own cab and control his own destiny. As cabby Mike and passenger Katherine travel acrouss the USA, negative words are exchanged and Mike keeps calling Sandy (Catherine Bell) who is Mike's cabby dispatcher and his girlfriend while Sandy remains back home minding someone elses' young son named Bobby (Haley Joel Osment). Poor Bobby loves his mom, but that love is not being reciprocated.

The message from this film is that everyone faces some challenges but these challenges seem much less consequential when family and/or friends are willing to listen to one another and show love and affection, rather than anger and resentment.

I have always loved Maureen O'Hara's leading lady roles especially when her co-star was big John Wayne, but let me assure you actor Jason Beghe is no slouch and the chemistry between his role as the gruff cabby Mike, and Maureen O'Hara's like minded gruff role as his pushy and demanding passenger Katherine is simply a wonderful relationship that blossoms over the next few days while travelling across the USA. I will admit it, I cried.

I give the film a well deserved 9 out of 10 IMDb rating.

A real-life drama: Well done--touching, moving but never mawkish. Excellent acting (and great chemistry) by Maureen O'Hara and Jason Beghe.

I have always been a fan of Maureen O'Hara since I first saw her in the Parent Trap when I was a child. Now 57 I still recall when she came out of retirement to do what I consider some classic movies, The Christmas Box, Only the Lonely, and this great gem Cab to Canada. While the majority of the cast are great, Ms. O'Hara always made me smile as she rarely ever agreed to give up her Irish lilt for an American accent and glad she stood her ground because it makes her more genuine and a great actress of her time. Sadly she discontinued acting not soon after this movie was made and permanently retired only to catch glimpses of her on TCM or when she was finally honored with an Academy award for her legion of films a few years before her passing. As for the remaining cast, we all know that Jason Beghe made a career of his own starring currently on the Chicago PD series but had many roles previously including his zany character in Californication;Catherine Bell for JAG and the Good witch series of films, and lastly Haley Joel Osment for the Sixth Sense.

I consider this a movie to definitely see once and not bad to watch when around the holidays.

After a Katherine Eure (Maureen O'Hara) goes to the funeral of a friend she realizes that life is too short to let it slip away and decides to hire a cab to take her to places that hold special memories for her.

She is a woman of substance, elegance and flair but she also has a sense of adventure that people a third of her age will never know. This was initially obvious with the taxi Driver, Mike Donahue (Jason Beghe), who has no wish to know about this side of life and just does his job. The movie highlights the gap between the generations and how the social graces of yesteryear and modern society values have become worlds apart.

As the pair journey through America on her ultimate goal of Canada the initial differences in opinions and social standing dissipate and an understanding of each other and valuable lessons are learned by each one. A lecture by Mike on how dreams and memories are not of consequence when you live for the moment in the real world showed us how, in reality, these things are what are truly important and can give us an inner peace and ability to cope with what goes on around us. The value of true friendship is the most important lesson to be learned here and how, no matter what, they are always there for each other through thick and thin.

There is a story within a story here, and the life of Mike's son, Bobby, and the tug of love he feels between his non-attentive mother, his father and his girlfriend and the feelings of abandonment and being torn are very well acted out by a young but already accomplished Haley Joel Osment.

Maureen O'Hara still has the class she has always had and is one very amazing lady and it was wonderful to see her with Efram Zimbalist Jr, bringing back memories of the golden era of Hollywood. My only complaint I have is that the ending made it so obvious it was a TV Movie and suddenly became like any standard feel-good fare.

All in all though, great cast, good movie (especially since it was based on an amazing factual tale), and very enjoyable.

more than story is the acting. more than acting can be the presence of Maureen O Hara who does a superb role. but the basic virtue is the science of director to use in perfect manner each of actors in a touching portrait. a film with old fashion flavor who gives subtle nuances to humor and dramatic moments, too smart to be pink, too precise to be only a family movie. a film like a chocolate box because it remembers the fundamental pillars of each existence and , without be moralistic, remade the admirable atmosphere of classic films. to say than Jason Bereghe is a special partner for O Hara is not inspired option because the acting becomes a form of tennis play. and Haley Joel Osment does a good work only because he can not makes exce3ption. a lovely film with ideal dose for each of its ingredients.