Around the Bend Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)October 4th, 2004
AROUND THE BEND
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Warner Independent Pictures
Grade: B+
Directed by: Jordan Roberts
Written by: Jordan Roberts
Cast: Michael Caine, Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas, Jonah Bobo, Glenn Headley
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 8/19/04
Forget about "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle." Despite all the appropriately vulgar humor of that movie, the
two best friends don't really learn anything more about each other as they search for the elusive burger joint. Think instead about a film that could be called Jason, Turner & Zack go to KFC. The humor is there throughout, along with the pathos, but "Around the Bend" is no sit-com. The laughs are evoked naturally from world class actors Michael
Caine, Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas–and an extraordinary performance from seven-year-old Jonah Bobo–as two members of a four-generation family plow through angst and estrangement to sort out the tensions between them and to grow up as well.
Despite his brief time on screen, Michael Caine in the role of great-grandad, granddad and father Henry Lair anchors the story, which is inspired by writer-director Jordan Roberts's own experience with a father who was a traveling
man. Indulging himself the in the sorts of quirks that octagenarians are entitled to give vent to, Henry, who has been planning his own death for some time, gets a brilliant idea to reunite his own son and grandson when Henry's son Turner Lair (Christopher Walker) shows up at his California digs after having disappeared for the past thirty years.
The great mystery of his long sabbatical gets explored only in the concluding moments, but until then, we join the newly arrived Turner with Turner's 32-year-old son, Jason (Josh Lucas), seven year old Zack Lair (Jonah Bobo), and Henry himself. Henry, however, appears at this point as ashes in a vase, which according to his dying wish are to be scattered throughout a chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets principally in New Mexico.
In his directing debut, Roberts freely mixes a subject of considerable seriousness with ample humor, allowing some of the side characters to be the butt of his jokes including Henry's European nurse Katrina (Glenn Headly), who brings her Danish point of view about sex to the screen, and a motel manager who cries each time she looks at a container situated in the registration room with the remains of her husband.
Though wracked by guilt, Christopher Walken's milks more humor in his role than would have been expected from a less professional actor, Josh Lucas appropriately plays a bank manager whose tension is related more to unfinished family business than to anxieties on the job. The real scene-stealer, however, is seven-year-old Jonah Bobo (a New Yorker I'm proud to say), an absolute natural as the kid who sit in the back seat of the old Volkswagon bus soaking
up the strange things that the adults are talking about up front. On location scenery in New Mexico, photographed by Michael Grady, is enough to prove that the state is indeed the Land of Enchantment–as is the entire film.
Rated R. 85 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
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