The Open Road Review

Sometimes, the collective charisma of a film’s cast, or even just the star-power of one great actor can mean the difference between a boring cliché-fest and an enjoyable romp. The Open Road is a film lucky enough to boast an impressive enough cast to shrug off the drag factor of its not inconsiderable flaws.

Failing baseball player Carlton Garret is summoned to his mother’s bedside. She is suffering from a unspecified heart condition (one serious enough to be of major concern, yet mild enough for the doctors to wait several days before operating for the events of the movie to take place) and must soon undergo surgery. Katherine however, is refusing to sign her consent papers until she sees Carlton’s estranged father Kyle, a famous baseball ex-pro. Carlton flies from Texas to Ohio to track down his dad, dragging along his ex-girlfriend Lucy (who has the patience of a saint). Upon finding Kyle, the pair convinces him to fly to see Katherine; at the airport however, it becomes apparent that Kyle has ‘lost’ his ID and cannot fly. The only solution is that great cinematic stand-by: the road trip, which will also provide Kyle and Carlton with the opportunity to repair their fractured relationship.

You don’t need to be in possession of clairvoyant powers to correctly guess what will happen on the road. Will Kyle and Carlton learn to love each other again? Will Carlton and Lucy realise their mistake in breaking up? Will there be thrills, spills and a happy ending? What do you think?

Fortunately, the aforementioned charismatic cast save The Open Road from being a total wash-out and turns it into something really rather watchable. Justin Timberlake stars as Carlton, Kate Mara (127 Hours, Ironclad) as Lucy, the wonderful Mary Steenburgen (The Proposal, Step Brothers,Curb Your Enthusiasm) as Katherine and Jeff Bridges as Kyle, who frankly, you could watch in anything. Ted Danson even has a brief cameo.

Timberlake provides more evidence that he is in fact a rather capable actor, though he is less suited to his role than he was in The Social Network (in which he was about as perfectly cast as you can get) and his mid-film flip out is pretty unconvincing. Bridges brings his earthy appeal to his character and pulls off what might otherwise be some pretty stolid dialogue, had it come from the lips of a great many lesser actors. It is also interesting to note that alongside Tron Legacy, this is another film in which he plays an absent father; along with True Grit, in which he played a man who becomes a surrogate father figure, it seems these has been some thematic continuity in Bridge’s recent roles. Either that or all casting directors want him to be their dad. Mara has little to do other than be pretty, charming and longsuffering, but she does that well.

So while The Open Road will not set anyone’s world alight, it is a solid and enjoyable film, buoyed by its excellent cast. Writer-director Michael Meredith would do well to exercise a little more creativity and originality in his next project; however, as it is unlikely he’ll be able to assemble such a good combination of actors every time.

Tron Legacy Review

How and why do you make a sequel to Tron? That’s not a question asked out of the perceived need to protect a holy cow, but more literally out of practicality. The original Tron, released in 1982 starred Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a cool computer programmer (possibly a role that only The Dude could pull off) who is physically sucked into an electronic world where computer programs are represented by people, everyone wears glowing neon Lycra and videogames are a matter of life and death. With the help of the programs Tron and Yori (created by and thus resembling his friends in the real world), Flynn is able to defeat the sentient Master Control Program that has been taking over his company, Encom, with designs on the world’s governments. Victorious, Flynn returns to reality and becomes CEO. Game over.

Would you like to play again?

Tron: Legacy picks up a few years later. Flynn has a son and Encom’s business is booming. Then Flynn disappears, leaving said son, Sam, orphaned. Twenty years later, Sam follows a mysterious signal emanating from his father’s long abandoned office. By chance, he finds himself transported to the digital world of The Grid, which is ruled by Clu, a program created by Flynn Sr. Does Clu know the true whereabouts of Sam’s father and can Sam escape from the digital nightmare?

Reigniting this somewhat forgotten brand is an unusual and interesting decision. The original was seen by approximately eleven people on release, but attracted a cult following on video, though far from what you might call a sizable built-in audience to tap into for a big Disney blockbuster. There’s also that essential back-story (as I have carefully relayed to you above) to re-establish to a new audience, the question of how to continue the familiar Tron visual style whilst updating it for the twenty-first century, plus the small issue of Jeff Bridge’s face being slightly more craggy and hairier than the last time around. All of these issues call into question the sensibility of picking up Tron again, even before we mention the risk of irking the fanboy’s ire.

Thankfully, Tron: Legacy tackles these problems head on. First and foremost, the film looks fantastic. The world of Tron is gorgeously designed and wonderful to look at. It is at once majestic and kitsch and director Joseph Kosinski has got the tone exactly right: it both inspires an ominous foreboding and warm nostalgia for eighties naff-ness. As the marketing campaign has made plain, there are two versions of Jeff Bridges in the film: his present-aged self and the much younger Clu embodiment. It is a testament to the special effects team that the digitally recreated Clu is much more instantly recognisable as Bridges than Bridges himself. I rarely get into too much of a froth about special effects, but come awards season, the team behind Tron: Legacy deservedly ought to win every technical gong going.

The film’s score by Daft Punk is also a major highlight and serves to breathe life into what might otherwise be a somewhat cold film. The actors also add some human warmth, with Bridges being both enigmatic as Clu and charismatic as the techno-hippy-monk Flynn. Garret Hedlund as Sam surprises with how regularly he fails to annoy and Olivia Wilde as warrior program Quorra is positively charming. Michael Sheen also turns up as Castor, a program seemingly designed to look like David Bowie and camp it the hell up. There are also some great action sequences, notably the updated light cycle competitions and a simply stunning dogfight which is possibly the most visually impressive thing you’ll have seen on a screen all year.

It’s a shame then, given that Tron: Legacy has so much going for it, that it has such a niggling flaw, which is, crucially, its plot. Whereas its predecessor conveyed interesting ideas in an easily understood manner, Legacy overcomplicates what should be kept simple, throws in maguffins unnecessarily and adds long, unenlightening scenes of exposition. It never really seems sure it’s convincing you either, as if it does not quite buy its own bull, which is disappointing given how much goodwill towards itself the film manages to conjure. There’s also the niggling annoyance that this is all really just setting up Tron 3 (a massive metaphorical door is left wide open to explore in the inevitable second sequel), which strikes me personally as overly cynical movie-making.

Still, a somewhat weak plot and its shameless franchise-establishing is not enough to truly scupper Tron: Legacy as a must-see film this winter. In the build up to its release, Disney brought up comparisons to Avatar on more than one occasion; this film is superior to James Cameron’s big blue beast in every way. If you see one blockbuster, tent-pole, visual effects extravaganza, event movie this year, make it this one.