Writer & Director
Jim Cummings
(NO FLOODWALL HERE)

Stars
Jim Cummings, Kendal Farr, Nican Robinson and Jocelyn DeBoer

A feature length adaptation of an award-winning short film, including the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, THUNDER ROAD is likely to be the launching pad for the international career of its star, composer, writer and director, Jim Cummings. This indie tragicomedy, which also premiered at Sundance, began with a kickstarter (global crowdfunding) campaign and was made on a slender $200,000 budget.

Jim Cummings plays a Texas-based police officer whose private life is causing public disturbance. Before we even meet Officer Jim Arnaud (Cummings), he is already having to deal with a bitter marriage break-up with his wife Rosalind (Jocelyn DeBoer) as well as struggling to connect with their young daughter Crystal (Kendal Farr), who resides with Rosalind. At work, Jim’s colleagues, and in particular his partner, Officer Nate Lewis (Nican Robinson), are becoming increasingly concerned for his well-being and ability to cope after the passing of his mother appears to trigger some very disorderly conduct.

An impressively acted and filmed opening scene that is shot in one continuous take (as was the entire short film) epitomises the ongoing temperament and core characteristics that comprise the main character for the duration of the film. To sum him up briefly, Jim is a man whose heart is in the right place, even though his mouth is the body part responsible for his constant undoing. Like me, some viewers might find that his incessant talking and chosen dialogue evokes cringing and restlessness more often than it does pity towards him. He’s not necessarily the easiest of characters to comprehend, I found, and there are passages during the film where this heavier reliance on dialogue to bring the duration of this short film adaptation out to a feature film length is its most challenging component.

So, despite THUNDER ROAD’s dialogue seemingly being somewhat improvised and sometimes meandering, the reactions to and consequences of Jim’s absent-minded ramblings and actions do feed sufficient depth to each strand of the plot. Each brain fade also has reverberations in another part of Jim’s life, but the impacts are muted courtesy of the film’s rather offbeat tone. Fortunately, once it has ended, THUNDER ROAD turns out to be a sincere enough depiction of the downfall of a husband, father, law-enforcement officer and finally, a man, to remain invested.

3 stars

Viewer Discretion
M (Mature themes and coarse language)

Trailer
THUNDER ROAD

Moviedoc thanks Rialto Distribution and Ned & Co for the invitation to watch and review this film.

Opens nationally from April 18th and 25th 

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
Follow on Twitter – Moviedoc / LIKE on Facebook – @moviedoc13

©