A nice and easy comedic drama, or dramatic comedy, with a little touch of romance, delusion and self discovery.
Mercer, Lou T. Pucci's character, was well constructed. A little to cliché, but if clichés are something, they are a representation of truth that nobody likes to admit. The loner with serious self-esteem problems, no sexual experience, a crush on the hot/promiscuous young lady, a somehow platonic relation with a less promiscuous lady and at last, not at all least, the goal of a journey. Lou Pucci really got the essence of the part and the viewer falls in love with Mercer, and join literally him in the road trip through America.
One of the greatest things in this movie is the journey. The way construct itself as they go, or as we go. There is this goal and that is it. Don't matter what the way or when we will get there, but we keep going until we start to come back. The next lead could send us to anywhere in the whole world and it wouldn't stop us from continue. Mercer would probably find a way to break a minor law and get away with that. On the other hand, how we hoped that the next lead was the final one, so Mercer could come back home? How much we were scared when he lost the car? How devastated we were when he lost Kate, and when he left Kate? It is fatal... When you inside someone's head, there is no way of not caring...
Zooey's character for very long, as Wilson, the ball, in Robert Zemeckis' "Castaway", was some kind of bond between Mercer's mind and the public. She was at first just a beautiful voice, evolved as Mercer and ourselves evolved through the movie, acquiring a face, a body, feelings and history. Did she needed all of that to being likable? Not at all... She could be just someone who knew that the car would be back sometime, or someone who just want to know how it would end... Or just someone who didn't give a f*ck about the car! Her background history is shallow, and her motives weak... But is Zooey! And you will love Zooey... Even more after Jena Malone's Joely shows herself as a HUGE b*tch... In this movie Zooey deliver a more realistic character than you can watch in Peyton Reed's "Yes Man", Marc Webb's "500 Days of Summer" or in the TV big hit "New Girl". Her part in this movie actually reminded of her part in Adam Rapp's "Winter Passing"... Well, if you don't count the coke addiction as a key quality of her character in "Winter Passing".
The music, mostly M. Ward, capture the atmosphere of the trip. A dusty and winding road, with a couple U-turns and some big rocks on the way as well some odd people and some lessons... And finally growth.
To finish. I really liked the direction in the moments of parallel between reality and Mercer's thoughts or memories. Hynes made a very good work in expressing himself artistically. Many directors would not dare to use some low budget special effects, but when used to express a feeling and not just a image, you don't need groundbreaking special effects. You need a camera and feeling to know what to record.
Mercer, Lou T. Pucci's character, was well constructed. A little to cliché, but if clichés are something, they are a representation of truth that nobody likes to admit. The loner with serious self-esteem problems, no sexual experience, a crush on the hot/promiscuous young lady, a somehow platonic relation with a less promiscuous lady and at last, not at all least, the goal of a journey. Lou Pucci really got the essence of the part and the viewer falls in love with Mercer, and join literally him in the road trip through America.
One of the greatest things in this movie is the journey. The way construct itself as they go, or as we go. There is this goal and that is it. Don't matter what the way or when we will get there, but we keep going until we start to come back. The next lead could send us to anywhere in the whole world and it wouldn't stop us from continue. Mercer would probably find a way to break a minor law and get away with that. On the other hand, how we hoped that the next lead was the final one, so Mercer could come back home? How much we were scared when he lost the car? How devastated we were when he lost Kate, and when he left Kate? It is fatal... When you inside someone's head, there is no way of not caring...
Zooey's character for very long, as Wilson, the ball, in Robert Zemeckis' "Castaway", was some kind of bond between Mercer's mind and the public. She was at first just a beautiful voice, evolved as Mercer and ourselves evolved through the movie, acquiring a face, a body, feelings and history. Did she needed all of that to being likable? Not at all... She could be just someone who knew that the car would be back sometime, or someone who just want to know how it would end... Or just someone who didn't give a f*ck about the car! Her background history is shallow, and her motives weak... But is Zooey! And you will love Zooey... Even more after Jena Malone's Joely shows herself as a HUGE b*tch... In this movie Zooey deliver a more realistic character than you can watch in Peyton Reed's "Yes Man", Marc Webb's "500 Days of Summer" or in the TV big hit "New Girl". Her part in this movie actually reminded of her part in Adam Rapp's "Winter Passing"... Well, if you don't count the coke addiction as a key quality of her character in "Winter Passing".
The music, mostly M. Ward, capture the atmosphere of the trip. A dusty and winding road, with a couple U-turns and some big rocks on the way as well some odd people and some lessons... And finally growth.
To finish. I really liked the direction in the moments of parallel between reality and Mercer's thoughts or memories. Hynes made a very good work in expressing himself artistically. Many directors would not dare to use some low budget special effects, but when used to express a feeling and not just a image, you don't need groundbreaking special effects. You need a camera and feeling to know what to record.