The Art of Travel

I'm reviewing this movie nearly 5 years after I saw it, so bear with me. "Why bother," you ask? Because 5 years later I'm still hard pressed to come up with a movie like it.

A real gem, though not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, "The Art of Travel" will appeal to those of you wanderlusting souls who can enjoy adventures in the simple act of getting on a plane and going somewhere new. There are no car chases, bank heists or torrid love affairs with hot supermodels. But since when have any of you experienced any of that? (If you have, then why the heck are you watching movies like the rest of us schmoes??)

Actually the story does contain some heavy action & suspense, possibly some good old Central American gunfire, but that's not intended to be the focus. On the contrary, life without hair-raising thrills can be every bit as adventurous and fun, and "The Art of Travel" shows us precisely that. I highly recommend it to young people who plan on traveling the world, as well as older folks who have never had the opportunity. This film awakens the adventurer in all of us. And don't get me wrong; it's certainly not boring. Like any good trip to a foreign land, every minute is packed with the unexpected. Hats off to the filmmakers for bringing the unique magic of travel into our living rooms.

This film is composed of elements that appeal to me but I was disappointed. The acting is journeyman quality and the cinematography is professional. The story is generally juvenile and poorly detailed, with some exceptions. Those good scenes made viewing less painful. The plot development tries, but fails to achieve a coherence and fails to allow the characters to become real. This leaves the movie as an 18 year old's fantasy of what he could do if he left his home town in anger and embarrassment and had hot chicks falling for him through a series of adventures while traveling on money provided by a cool dad living vicariously. The young hero accomplishes nothing on his own merit except for saving the trans-Darien expedition from a guerrilla band in a scene that rings so phony it would have worked better as a dream sequence. This is not a retelling of the universal stories of transformation through adversity or rites of passage. Although the central character grows a beard and looks older by the end of the movie he has not matured. Likewise, decent acting and production values have not created a mature or compelling film.

I totally understood what the director/producers were trying to do with this film. But most of it was not true to real life. The casting was strange, it seemed they cast two Latin actors and one Latina in the principal roles, and made them out to be from the US and Prague. Where did Connor get all the money to do this traveling? I did allot of adventure travel when I was his age and it's not free! My guess is that they got really good tax credits from Peru, Nicargua, Panama,and Bolivia. Where did the funds come from for this type of film? Not one A list actor. But that's a good thing. I liked the fact that it was not a Hollywood movie. All in all I enjoyed it, and it made me want to travel again.

Had googled 'great travel movies' before I watched this, and must admit that it has been a long time since I was that disappointed. I will not employ tired similes in this review (such as 'it has as much depth as a well-splashed puddle') but rarely have I seen a movie - with so much potential to be engaging - being so unengaging. All the characters overacted, so I was left midway through wondering whether this was meant to be a farce or a philosophical 'find yourself' film. Masterson's character annoyed me so much that had I encountered him on his central/south American odyssey, I would have slapped him to the deepest reaches of Patagonia. While there was some redemption in the cinematography, the overall premise of this movie was constructed with incredulous naivety and could just very well turn you against backpackers or put you off your next jaunt to Machu Picchu

Movie was a little entertaining, but nothing new in it.

So... guy who travels... so he travels... and??? NOTHING MORE!!! come on, he does not even makes a lovable character at the end of the movie, in the end you get more interested in other characters - what happened to them, not in him.

I didn't even get the idea - what did director wanted to tell us... I guess nothing. Would not watch this movie again, but still if you have nothing to do you could rent it, but I would not recommend you to go and see it in cinema, just not good enough.

So I give this movie 5 stars - mediocre. Not bad, but definitely not great also.