Prince Avalanche

"You tried kill yourself by jumping off a 12 foot cliff?" (Lance to Alvin)

I'm a sucker for minimalism and absurdism, the kind Samuel Beckett and Jerry Seinfeld make their own: terse dialogue about nothing that somehow elicits humor and becomes something deeper with thoughts about life, loss, and hope.

Writer-director David Gordon Green has crafted a simple bromatic morality tale of two guys painting road lines in 1988 after a forest fire near Austin, Texas. The purged, scorched landscape of the ravaged but beautiful Bastrop State Park serves as metaphor for the men/boys' cleansing journey marching toward a renewed life. One critic calls it "broken people in a broken forest."

The larger concerns of the film, which is episodic with love and loss overlaying the quotidian activities of painting road lines, are manifold: In Alvin's (Paul Rudd) case, how can he keep his lover, Madison, when he is absent and really has little to offer? In Lance's (EmileHirsch) life, how can he mature enough to deal with the heartbreak his sister is causing Alvin by breaking up with him. Alvin and Lance's conversation lightly brushes the issue of their relationship with women, but in simple lives, this issue is grand and well accounted for by Green's spare dialogue: "Can we enjoy the silence?"

As in Beckett's Waiting for Godot, where the characters are trying "to hold the terrible silence at bay," nothing like God or illumination is arriving, just an old man (Lance LeGault) driving a truck with some moonshine and pithy life advice.

As the road lines and the drink proliferate, issues for the three men emerge having to do with their relationships with women. The ingenious part is to make what the truck driver says and does echo the very heart of the conflicts with the two line painters.

So Prince Avalanche (a title Green admits makes little sense but could reflect the absurdist atmosphere, wherein they are lords of chaos at best) is also about nothing because nothing is happening while life-defining relationships are lying underneath. As with Hemingway, the spare story asks you to consider if the bell is tolling for just these three loners, or is it tolling for you, too?

You don't need to be a Prince who causes Avalanches to see that the issues of love and women do amount to a hill of beans for each little male life. Simplicity trumps complexity once again.

All hope was lost for David Gordon Green. After a string of cult-ready indie flicks, he sold out in the best possible way and made the hilarious Pineapple Express. I hoped it was a one off, or at least, that he would remain good at comedy. But the disappointing Your Highness and the 'I- can't-even-bear-to-look-at-its-IMDb-page' The Sitter don't look too promising for his future. Now with Prince Avalanche, it seems like he's taken a good look at himself and realized what he does best. Small scale dramas concerning the human condition, especially regarding romantic relationships. I always love good films about little-thought of jobs and the guys who do the line painting of the roads in the middle of nowhere is a fascinating one. Prince Avalanche is a dual character study of an introvert and an extrovert but goes beyond the 'odd couple' clichés. Together, they cover enough ground to find relatable areas, and with dialogue-driven scenes, it cuts to the core of what they live for and how that drive changes and grows throughout the course of the film.

Paul Rudd is absolutely outstanding here. I'm so glad he's finally found a role to test his dramatic talent without having to ignore his brand of comedy, though much of the humour of this film is incidental and sparse. He's incredibly subtle and commanding. Unfortunately, Emile Hirsch looks amateur next to Rudd and he rarely feels as sincere. Sometimes the little conflicts between them suffer because of it which make the film feel slower than it is, but they still drive the character development in an interesting way. Rudd aside, the highlight of the film is the great cinematography. Sometimes the cutaways and montages are more emotionally engaging than the words as they think of all the symbols possible in this environment with these characters. It's a film that conjures a mood more than anything and it reassures me that David Gordon Green never left, he was just taking a break. I regret that I've more or less forgotten what happens in his first four films but Avalanche makes me want to revisit them soon. It's a beautiful simple film which ends on a lovely hopeful note. A true catharsis from the social order of life and utterly refreshing to watch.

8/10

If Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd get stuck in the woods, does it make for a good movie?

This is the question Prince Avalanche asks of us, and the answer is a resounding yes. The film is a low-budget bromance that focuses on the relationship of two road workers revamping Texas roads after a forest fire wipes them out.

Spending weeks at a time isolated from society, our two protagonists get to know each other very well, and talk about everything and anything together – but mostly women. Alvin, (Paul Rudd) is dating Lance's (Emile Hirsch) older sister Madison, while Lance is constantly looking forward to the day when he can leave the forest and head back into the city where all the girls are.

The pair of actors are wonderful together, and it's their comical and engaging interactions that provide the framework for this movie. Director David Gordon Greene (The Sitter, Pineapple Express) is no stranger to comedy, and there are some brilliantly funny moments in Prince Avalanche, but the humor never takes full focus. There are long, meditative shots of nature mixed in with some great dramatic events that make this film a more reflective piece than a funny one.

Unfortunately, there is a bit of empty space, and some scenes drag on longer than they should. There is also this sub-plot involving an older alcoholic character that never really goes anywhere. Despite it's flaws, the highs and lows in Alvin and Lance's relationship make for a charming and inspirational story. Prince Avalanche is whole-heartedly an entertaining film that finds that rare sweet spot between the heart and funny bone.

Prince avalanche gains much of its personality from the fire damaged forests that it takes place in. Despite the characters fairly trivial and base dramas that occur in their lives the film likes to remind us of the natural beauty that can be found in the remnants of what was once a community but is now being rebuilt by these two bumbling characters.

There's not a great deal of plot compelling Avalanche forward at times and often scenes will consist primarily of Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch spraying new road surface lines followed by extensive hammerings in of poles. Although the film may appear slow I quite enjoyed the meditative state in which the film exists as the occasional bursts of personality were punctuated more by the peace that preceded it. The film is also often quite funny in my opinion but it's a very low key humble humor that won't have you in stitches but feels natural within the scene.

I also really enjoyed the truck driver character and subplot (I guess you'd call it) involving a woman who lost her house. I guess why these elements work so well is that you're constantly searching any one frame or scene for something that will advance the plot and although these elements appeared before my patience ever wore too thin, they're still quite few and far between. There also a scene which involves Hirsch and Rudd getting drunk and doing whatever one does drunk this deep into the woodlands which I found very funny and a definite highlight.

The film doesn't achieve any great heights and probably doesn't land as much humour or inject enough drama to justify its length I still enjoyed my time in the theatre and would recommend watching it if you're in a chill enough mood.

A story about two men working on motorway maintenance. That's it. From the opening to closing scene we are presented with a series of interchanges of these two guys working the asphalt. One might rush to assume that it probably is a dull experience but in truth it was far from it.

There was something about the realism and humanity of the interaction that would maintain the audience's attention and engagement. Slowly, we became part of the ordinary lives of these two men and our interest in their dealings with one another only increased and thus making this a largely unnoticed gem.