It's 1962 small town California. Caroline Potter is set to make a speech to her hero, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She is killed in a car accident on the same day that Marilyn Monroe died and her daughter Ellie (Liana Liberato) blames herself for it. Her father Bob Potter (Luke Wilson) is overwhelmed and hopeless with his many kids. Her best friend Max (Isabelle Fuhrman) writes to Eleanor Roosevelt. Billy has a crush on Max and forges a reply to please her. The girls decide to drive to New York so that Ellie could finish an important quest. Along the way, they are joined by escaped convict Frank Morris (Josh Lucas) and Max's Aunt Daisy (Jessica Alba) with the Cuban Missile Crisis in the background. Ellie gets a kiss from hunky Bud (Patrick Schwarzenegger).
It's trying to be a light road trip with some wacky screwball fun. It's trying to be a nostalgic romp but I doubt the writers are from that era. It's trying to be a tearful coming-of-age story but the mother doesn't have enough time to set it up. It's trying to be a female empowering friendship movie but the girls are being teenage girls. They need more than a talkative Max to elevate the friendship to BFF4Ever. The only truly satisfying character plot line comes from Aunt Daisy. Her journey is a good solid standard self-empowering journey. The escaped convict story has all the wrong tones and needs to be eliminated. It's trying to be comedic but elements of the story really clash with that tone. The movie needs to start with more of the mother and her obsession with Eleanor Roosevelt. Once that is established, Ellie's journey would be much more compelling. This is written and directed by people who can't deliver the time period or the story elements to make this work. I do like the characters and the actors which helps. Otherwise, it's not a compelling drive.
