Detours

I saw "Detours" at the Long Island International Film Expo along with two short films. While I enjoyed the shorts, I was blown away by "Detours". It's one of those films that hook you from the beginning and make you feel like you're a part of it, as if you're sharing a living room, kitchen, car adventure or meal with the players.

I'd seen Tara Westwood in "Surviving Family" and loved her performance there, but she won me over even more so in "Detours". Though her character's trials & tribulations here weren't things I have exactly been though, her performance made me feel her angst as well as her jubilation.

Her dad, played by Carlo Fiorletta, was both sympathetic and funny as hell. His humor, though, would come out of nowhere and be understated, making situations even funnier. In the end, though, it was his character's relationship with Westwood's that "made" the film. It was like they were real-life father & daughter (they're not).

I'm hopeful that there will be a sequel, because this is one family, albeit a two-person one, with whom I've love to spend more tears & laughs.

A daughter must relocated with her grieving father. Terrific performances from the leads and special praise to the director for such delicate handling of sensitive material.

Here we go again with the biased reviews from people that will only review one movie in their entire IMDb career, friends of friends from the cast or somebody else that worked on the movie, in other words fake reviews. Detours isn't that good, it's mediocre at best. It started a tiny bit interesting but you realize pretty soon this is going nowhere, or at least nothing interesting anymore. The acting is obviously from people with no experience at all, none of them will ever win an Oscar, I can guarantee you that. The cinematography wasn't really great either, it looked amateuristic but it's passable. The story is just too slow and boring, and by the end you just wonder why they make a movie like this one. There are good indies but this one isn't one of them.

This is a road movie, exactly opposite of one of my favourite in this genre, 'The Guilt Trip'. Instead, here a father and his daughter hit the road. Very brief introduction. Within the ten minutes, the adventure begins. It was like any other film you had seen, somewhat realistic, as well as cinematic. The life parts are so true, and so the relations between the father and daughter. The fun side of the tale is what the other side of reality. Just to make sure you are enjoying it, otherwise, those parts were never needed for such film.

The daughter who has given up her acting job to pursue a new career in the theatre management, embarks a road trip to Florida with her recently widowed dad. It is not meant to be a smooth trip. They talk stuffs, argue sillily, do things together for fun, so on. They are set to rediscover their relationship, after all the recent bad events happened in their lives. What happens when they reach their destination, lets us know before the narration comes to halt.

Never seen this cast before, nor the director. A decent screenplay, but being an Indie film, it actually looked pretty better than that. Those father-daughter things, like generation gaps, I liked that part. Not too funny or very serious, a balanced narration. At first the performances did not impact, only as the story progresses, it got hold strongly. One of the best B movies of the year, as well as in the recent time.

7/10

I loved this film! The script was rich and emotional as well as funny ! Mara definitely developed the characters in a rich way!

The journey from New Jersey to Florida took me back to memories of traveling up and down the east coast, as well! I loved the way in which she envelops the main characters mom into the story and how it affected who she is today. The father's overwhelming forgiveness shows how families can stay together beyond a tragedy as well.

Overwell this is a very well done film - Absolutely loved it!