Canada's answer to 'Midnight Cowboy', this low budget drama focuses on two Nova Scotian men who drive to the large metropolis of Toronto with dreams of making it big. As per Joe Buck, disillusionment soon sets in with the pair forced to take menial jobs to pay their way as well as accommodation less exciting than they had previously imagined. Shattered dreams is often a good cinematic topic, but one really needs to care about the characters for such films to work, and this is where 'Goin' Down the Road' trips up. The friends are naïve beyond belief, with one of them thinking that he is capable of landing a job at an advertising agency, even rocking up to an interview and stating that his experience comes from watching so many ads on television! The pair do not think too hard about accommodation either and are inexplicably shocked when a Toronto relative (who they assumed they could stay with without ever actually asking) tells them that he does not have the room. The characters do, however, manage to get themselves into some pretty interesting situations with a daring grocery run and a drunken wedding reception clear highlights. There is also something to like in how one of them is torn between trying to make a life in Toronto with a newfound girlfriend and going back to Nova Scotia with his pal. Life is never as simple as it seems, is it?
Review of Goin' Down the Road
