Around the Bend

I was the composer on this film, and while I recognise that that fact may taint me as blindly partisan on its behalf, I still have to say that

A) I have never seen audiences respond with such obvious affection and warmth towards anything that I've ever worked on, (even including my terminally unemotional engineer, who actually cried, something I never expected in a million years that I would ever see, and doubt that I will again. )

and B)... Just give it a chance. If you hate it, so you blew 20 bucks and a couple hours. feel free to send me a nasty email, and if you make a convincing enough case, maybe i'll personally refund your 20. I doubt I'll have to. This is a wonderful film, made by the kind of person and for the kinds of reasons that we all need to support, if we care at all about what we do, and how it affects people. And I mean people, not industry professionals. See it with a civilian audience, as a human being, and you will be rewarded. This is a splendid movie, and Walken is stunning, and this is one where you just have to take the big city critics with a grain of salt. This movie was not made for them. It wasn't made for professional opinion makers. It was made for you. And yes, I may be prejudiced, but I don't think so.

David Baerwald

Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas are incredibly believable in their rich portrayals of a father and son who have been apart for many years and brought together by an eccentric grandfather's wish for a family reunion and an emotional scavenger hunt. Newcomer, Jonah Bobo is superbly natural in his role as Zack. The story is heart-warming and heart-wrenching at the same time, reminding us that while we don't choose our families, we can choose to love and accept them in spite of the damage we do to each other. We can indeed learn from the mistakes of those who go before us and pass on the best of the previous generation leaving our mark on the next generation.

This was a great movie, with a great soundtrack - a real father-son coming of age story without any saccharine!

I found this in a video store and with the great cast (not always a good indicator!) and the list of awards won I took a chance on it being good. As is often the case when you have little expectation you are most pleasantly surprised. I thought the characters were wonderful the setting and photography beautiful and the soundtrack really made it. There are also nice little touches where an item seen in a passing shot has a connection to something later in the film.

The only weakness I felt was Josh Lucas in the role of the child's father. It was hard to make any genetic connection with the characters played by Michael Caine or Christopher Walken. It's not that his acting was poor he just didn't seem to fit in. Please try and see the movie - I doubt that you'll be disappointed.

This is a wonderful movie, beautifully acted by Christopher Walken, Michael Caine and Josh Lucas...it's funny, droll, touching....a great character study. I don't know why it didn't get more notice. I've always thought Christopher Walken was a fine actor...this movie made me see him as brilliant. I truly loved it. The story is based on the relationships of 4 generations of men in one family; from the grandfather - Michael Caine - to the six-year-old son of Josh Lucas.This is the story of so many families and my favorite line is Michael Caine's to his grandson, Josh Lucas, about Josh's 'broken' father, Christopher Walken: "I carried you, you carried me, we need to carry him." It's what families do. I loved that.

I can't give this movie a perfect score, which I reserve for classic, Earth-shattering movies that may truly change one's ways of watching movies. But I give this a high nine, and as it stands, this is one of the very, very few movies that I could watch dozens of times more without ever feeling tired, and wanting more. This is a gripping, fearless movie that instead of drenching itself with tears and syrup, it grips you and plays with your feelings as if it owned you. You'll have to be willing to be taken over, of course, but once you do, you're in for a ride.

Honestly, I find it a bit banal to label this as a "road movie". To me, it's a genuinely comical family drama. I had great laughs with this movie, the way it was written and directed, and with the actors' performances, but especially because it wasn't aching to be a comedy. Nothing here looked contrived and forced, and none of the events, no matter how unexpected, felt like it didn't belong there. And we're talking about one interesting plot here. I suppose you can find a good synopsis of the movie elsewhere, so I'd rather settle on the review proper here, instead of giving details of how the movie goes. Suffice to say, it's a powerful story, intelligently written, cleverly paced, directed and acted with talent and care. You see, most times I demand a film to have content, something interesting to say, which this movie certainly has. But I was also delighted and entertaining by the way the movie was told. Being this Jordan Roberts's first effort, I think it's a particularly impressive one.

As for the actors, you must know them by heart, and if you're a fan of any of them, you won't be disappointed. Yes, Caine's present in only a fifth of the movie's length, but it's a memorable performance alright. Christopher Walken is the main force in the movie, and I really enjoyed his performance and his character, Turner. Lots of fun. Josh Lucas's character, Jason, isn't as immediately striking, but he's quite intricate, and the performance here is just spot on. And of course, the big focus isn't on either of them exclusively, but on their relationship. I just wasn't expecting to be so utterly amazed by Jonah Bobo, though! I was already familiar with his work on the children's cartoon The Backyardigans, doing the voice of my favourite character, no less. But to me, at least, he stole the scene almost every time; even when he didn't say a thing, for he could show only with his facial expressions, his movements and everything else, his character and what he was going through, in particular how curious he was about Turner and how attuned he was getting to him, and vice versa. It's worthy to mention how, in the "making of" documentary, we see he's a playful, intelligent and happy kid, and that he can switch into another kid entirely, wholly absorbed by the movie, with so much ease. I can't say the movie couldn't possibly be anywhere below "okay" with Jonah in it, and yes, I'm aware Caine and Walken are in it too. But the movie isn't just about that. It's much more. And if people can give up their resistance and make themselves ready for a thrilling, shameless emotional ride, this is a movie I can recommend. It's short, yes, but if you feel it's too short, just watch it again.