Like most people, I love getting behind a movie where a family overcomes all sorts of obstacles only to triumph and grow stronger because of them. And in these types of movies, a lesson is always learned as we watch evil being defeated by good. But this is not that movie.
It starts off really promising as you see this heartbroken family coping not only with the loss of a beloved husband and father but also with the pain of starting a new life elsewhere as the burden of medical debt forces them to do so. And you have hope that by the credits you'll seen them mended back together in love and moving forward with healing and new lives after working together to overcome whatever trials this road trip may throw at them. But then things spin in a different direction within the first 15 minutes of the film as you watch an uncle share a joint with his minor niece and you start to get that queasy feeling that things won't be quite right. And, if you watch much past that, that feeling does not go away.
For one thing, every white person this African-American family encounters in the movie is bad. And I'm not talking about "cutting someone off on the highway" or "being dramatic about assumed line cutting in a store" bad. I'm talking about evil. Two young white guys in a Ford Truck hanging out a gas station (redneck much?) make lewd comments and guestures toward the young teenage girl in the family who flips them off and heads to the car. That should have been the end of it, right? Nope! The rednecks answer her supposed "rudeness" by chasing this poor family down on the highway and threatening the mother (Queen Latifah) with violence against herself and her family unless she apologizes for endangering their lives.
If that had been the only racial issue we saw in the movie, that might be something viewers could accept as semi-realistic. Unfortunately, it's not as their continued interactions with white people result in more pain and humiliation as they literally fight for their lives on a 3-day journey through Arizona.
Stylistically, the movie also stumbles as there are weird lighting choices in almost every scene (why is everything neon?) and the actions they all take are so nonsenical that you almost think you're watching a parody (who runs into a hotel room after you hear a gunshot go off?) Plus, it almost appears like the production team wanted to create a Mad Max type existence in the American Southwest that would make any non-white person fearful of ever entering any of those states!
And, without giving any more away, the moral of the story that's learned is not one of family unity and triumph but instead is summed up by the youngest member of the family declaring "restitution!" when the whole family actively engages in criminal activity.
I so wanted this movie to be good but by the credits I only felt sorrow thinking how divisive films like these are in a country that is already struggling to unite.
It starts off really promising as you see this heartbroken family coping not only with the loss of a beloved husband and father but also with the pain of starting a new life elsewhere as the burden of medical debt forces them to do so. And you have hope that by the credits you'll seen them mended back together in love and moving forward with healing and new lives after working together to overcome whatever trials this road trip may throw at them. But then things spin in a different direction within the first 15 minutes of the film as you watch an uncle share a joint with his minor niece and you start to get that queasy feeling that things won't be quite right. And, if you watch much past that, that feeling does not go away.
For one thing, every white person this African-American family encounters in the movie is bad. And I'm not talking about "cutting someone off on the highway" or "being dramatic about assumed line cutting in a store" bad. I'm talking about evil. Two young white guys in a Ford Truck hanging out a gas station (redneck much?) make lewd comments and guestures toward the young teenage girl in the family who flips them off and heads to the car. That should have been the end of it, right? Nope! The rednecks answer her supposed "rudeness" by chasing this poor family down on the highway and threatening the mother (Queen Latifah) with violence against herself and her family unless she apologizes for endangering their lives.
If that had been the only racial issue we saw in the movie, that might be something viewers could accept as semi-realistic. Unfortunately, it's not as their continued interactions with white people result in more pain and humiliation as they literally fight for their lives on a 3-day journey through Arizona.
Stylistically, the movie also stumbles as there are weird lighting choices in almost every scene (why is everything neon?) and the actions they all take are so nonsenical that you almost think you're watching a parody (who runs into a hotel room after you hear a gunshot go off?) Plus, it almost appears like the production team wanted to create a Mad Max type existence in the American Southwest that would make any non-white person fearful of ever entering any of those states!
And, without giving any more away, the moral of the story that's learned is not one of family unity and triumph but instead is summed up by the youngest member of the family declaring "restitution!" when the whole family actively engages in criminal activity.
I so wanted this movie to be good but by the credits I only felt sorrow thinking how divisive films like these are in a country that is already struggling to unite.