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Around the Bend (2004)
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Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:7
Rotten:22
Average Rating:4.8/10
Theatrical Release:Oct 8, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $117,093
Synopsis: "Around the Bend" is inspired by the relationship between writer-director Jordan Roberts and the absentee father he barely knew. It tells the story of four generations of men who are suddenly... "Around the Bend" is inspired by the relationship between writer-director Jordan Roberts and the absentee father he barely knew. It tells the story of four generations of men who are suddenly brought together by the chance to uncover the truth about their family's past. The journey will take them out on the road to a world full of surprises-some comic, some dramatic, and all of them personal. Jason Lair (Josh Lucas) is a simple man with a simple wish: a normal life. This isn't an easy goal for the mild-mannered bank employee: Jason is newly separated from his wife, who has left him to care for their six-year-old son Zach (Jonah Bobo) while she paints in Nepal, and his ailing grandfather Henry (Oscar® winner Michael Caine), a former archaeologist close to death, is investigating alternative rituals for his impending funeral ("I'm not going in the ground!" he protests.) So when Jason's estranged father and Henry's son Turner (Oscar® winner Christopher Walken), whose checkered past includes exploits from the musical to the criminal, pays the family an unexpected visit, nothing is 'simple' or 'normal' in Jason's life anymore. In the coming days, the somewhat reluctant Lair men will embark on a trip not only through the mythic beauty of the Desert Southwest, but across the family's own rocky emotional landscape. Forced together by a deep loss, these very different people find a great deal along the way-devastating secrets, amazing discoveries and, just as Henry wanted… each other. Warner Independent Pictures presents a Kirkham-Lewitt Production "Around the Bend," directed by Jordan Roberts from his original screenplay. Producers are Elliott Lewitt and Julie Kirkham. Executive Producer is Ronald G. Smith. Director of photography is Michael Grady. Production designer is Sarah Knowles. Editor is Francoise Bonnot, A.C.E. Costume designer is Alix Friedberg. Composer is David Baerwald. The film stars Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas and Michael Caine. Also in the film are Glenne Headly, Jonah Bobo and Kathryn Hahn. -- © Warner Independent [More]
Starring: Christopher Walken, Joshua Lucas, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly
Starring: Christopher Walken, Joshua Lucas, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly, Jonah Bobo, Norbert Weisser, David Eigenberg
Director: Jordan Roberts
Director: Jordan Roberts
Screenwriter: Jordan Roberts
Producer: Julie Kirkham, Elliot Lewitt
Composer: David Baerwald
Studio: Warner Independent
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Reviews for Around the Bend
A sentimental journey, to be sure, but is saved by bleakly humorous moments.
In Michael Caine and Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas, [Roberts has] surrounded himself with a first-rate cast who, with one exception, seize the day.
Walken manages to deliver something pure and heartfelt here. Unfortunately, he's doing so in a film weighed down by coincidences and quirks.
Seems to think it's extra-crunchy, but winds up a pretty regular affair.
When Roberts should be avoiding the potholes of sentimentality and cliche ... he drives straight at them.
This movie is too precious by half, but the smooth, unhurried performances of Caine and Walken (along with the sturdy work of Josh Lucas) allow plenty of room for forgiveness.
There are a couple of minor detours, but on the whole the movie never loses its way.
First-time filmmaker Jordan Roberts worked on this project for years, but merely ended up with dreary cliche.
It's so programmatic, so dogged in hitting the right steps at the right time that it completely lacks spontaneity.
Would be a much bigger treat if dramas like this weren't already plentiful on cable television.
It's one of those films where the characters always seem to be Behaving, as if ordinary life has to be jacked up into eccentricity.
Of course, audiences need and deserve tales of family reconciliation, but that doesn't make this one any less bogus at its softly fluttering heart.
Sadly, this predictable film will not mean as much to audiences as it obviously does to its creator.
A somewhat predictable tale of family bonding, given some grit and grace by Christopher Walken and Michael Caine.
This might have been a standard-issue, generational male-bonding road movie, if not for the amazing work of Christopher Walken.
If you are not anesthetized by the ploddingly sincere direction of Jordan Roberts, the unrelenting country/ pop hit parade on the soundtrack will put you in a stupor.
Around the Bend unflinchingly deals with grief and emotional scars, but it offers a life-affirming meditation on familial ties that bind.
Latest News for Around the Bend
January 12, 2006:
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