Prince Avalanche

If Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd get stuck in the woods, does it make for a good movie?

This is the question Prince Avalanche asks of us, and the answer is a resounding yes. The film is a low-budget bromance that focuses on the relationship of two road workers revamping Texas roads after a forest fire wipes them out.

Spending weeks at a time isolated from society, our two protagonists get to know each other very well, and talk about everything and anything together – but mostly women. Alvin, (Paul Rudd) is dating Lance's (Emile Hirsch) older sister Madison, while Lance is constantly looking forward to the day when he can leave the forest and head back into the city where all the girls are.

The pair of actors are wonderful together, and it's their comical and engaging interactions that provide the framework for this movie. Director David Gordon Greene (The Sitter, Pineapple Express) is no stranger to comedy, and there are some brilliantly funny moments in Prince Avalanche, but the humor never takes full focus. There are long, meditative shots of nature mixed in with some great dramatic events that make this film a more reflective piece than a funny one.

Unfortunately, there is a bit of empty space, and some scenes drag on longer than they should. There is also this sub-plot involving an older alcoholic character that never really goes anywhere. Despite it's flaws, the highs and lows in Alvin and Lance's relationship make for a charming and inspirational story. Prince Avalanche is whole-heartedly an entertaining film that finds that rare sweet spot between the heart and funny bone.

A story about two men working on motorway maintenance. That's it. From the opening to closing scene we are presented with a series of interchanges of these two guys working the asphalt. One might rush to assume that it probably is a dull experience but in truth it was far from it.

There was something about the realism and humanity of the interaction that would maintain the audience's attention and engagement. Slowly, we became part of the ordinary lives of these two men and our interest in their dealings with one another only increased and thus making this a largely unnoticed gem.

The original film, "Á annan veg," was a nice surprise when I discovered and watched it during a red-eye flight with IcelandAir. I had never heard of it before, so even in Iceland, it's quite obscure, so I found it a little weird that it was being remade in Hollywood.

This remake is in most parts a carbon-copy of the original with the Icelandic dialog translated into English, but that's not really a bad thing. It's interesting to see the story in a different, but eerily the exact same, place.

There are really only three characters in the whole movie: the adult man, the young man and the truck driver. I prefer Paul Rudd to most actors any day of the week, so he wins, and Emile Hirsch was fine as the young man; however, I kinda liked the truck driver better in the original version, because there, he had this strange "I surely am a sex offender" vibe, which is lacking here. It just gave him a little more personality.

All in all, a good watch. Simple story, but interesting and slightly better than the original because of the Rudd-factor.

I enjoyed seeing Prince Avalanche at SXSW Film Festival. It is a peculiar and deceptively simple story of two highway workers in an isolated area painting the line down the middle of a new highway. The setting becomes a character as this low-budget movie was filmed in Bastrop, Texas last summer in the aftermath of the recent fires. Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch are really magnificent. Rudd is actually difficult to recognize and comes off so different than he often does in his straight comedy roles. This is a dialogue-driven film that in some ways seems a bit like a stage play. The dialogue and the relationship between the two leads drives the entire film. The film nicely merges the comedic nature of both of the ridiculous characters with the serious nature of the issues that they are dealing with in their personal lives. The film is far lighter than Rudd's recent turn in deathly dark Killer Joe, but somewhat more serious than Rudd's big budget film This is 40. While this sort of small-budget film is unlikely to get widespread distribution it really showcases the talents of both of these actors and the importance of good writing and a beautiful setting.

Prince avalanche gains much of its personality from the fire damaged forests that it takes place in. Despite the characters fairly trivial and base dramas that occur in their lives the film likes to remind us of the natural beauty that can be found in the remnants of what was once a community but is now being rebuilt by these two bumbling characters.

There's not a great deal of plot compelling Avalanche forward at times and often scenes will consist primarily of Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch spraying new road surface lines followed by extensive hammerings in of poles. Although the film may appear slow I quite enjoyed the meditative state in which the film exists as the occasional bursts of personality were punctuated more by the peace that preceded it. The film is also often quite funny in my opinion but it's a very low key humble humor that won't have you in stitches but feels natural within the scene.

I also really enjoyed the truck driver character and subplot (I guess you'd call it) involving a woman who lost her house. I guess why these elements work so well is that you're constantly searching any one frame or scene for something that will advance the plot and although these elements appeared before my patience ever wore too thin, they're still quite few and far between. There also a scene which involves Hirsch and Rudd getting drunk and doing whatever one does drunk this deep into the woodlands which I found very funny and a definite highlight.

The film doesn't achieve any great heights and probably doesn't land as much humour or inject enough drama to justify its length I still enjoyed my time in the theatre and would recommend watching it if you're in a chill enough mood.