Dirt Road to Lafayette

A good story and solid script but this film is lifted by the performance of the young actor behind the principal character Neil Sutcliffe. A fantastic supporting cast and some goose-bump inducing music with astute character observation give this film a 3rd dimension. I'll admit to having moist eyes at some points.

I'd hope to see much more from Mr Sutcliffe in the decades ahead as well as more from Director Kenneth Glanaan.

It's a bit of a stretch to find a young Scottish lad, shy and diffident, gingerly picking up an accordion he says he hasn't played for awhile then playing the bejaysus out of it. Bedazzled, local dyed in the wool Louisiana zydeco players offer him studio time and a place in a band. However, it's only a stretch. Other movies demand that you leave your brains in neutral in order to accept their alternative take on reality.

It's about grief and letting go. I find other offerings deal with these subjects better, and others worse. At least it doesn't browbeat you with demands on your emotions that are too shrill to work well.

Interesting to see that many reviewers on here were deeply affected by it, while films that I love leave others cold.

Don't expect a fast pace. Enjoy the music.

A lovely portrait of grief, teenage feelings and gentle reflection on the differences that make beauty in this world

Though rich in culture and music, The Dirt Road to Lafayette should be a pensive stroll but it comes off more as a melancholic traipse. A lot of this is due to sluggish pacing, unnecessary side characters and an over-reliance on songs in place of character development.

If you love zydeco music then this movie is a great platform for it and you're going to love it ... the performers are clearly all very accomplished players and singers. Songs are presented in their entirety and there's a very interesting range which at one point shifts into 12 bar blues and at others references and showcases the lead character's and his extended family's Scottish origins. So 10/10 for the music. I also liked the premise that the loss of an older sister and mother had led to father and son leaving their Scottish homeland and looking for comfort from their extended family in the deep South ... and the son rediscovering his love of the accordian through a chance encounter with a local legend, playing in her own backyard, in a small Southern town. What the movie also tries to convey though is how father and son are coping differently with their loss ... the son using the music and the affirmation he receives from the musicians he meets and plays with to edge him out of mourning his loss. The father seems not to understand or is unwilling to acknowledge or encourage this. But the reasons for this are not really explored. There are long faces and silences every time they are alone together, but these only go so far in exploring how the loss has affected how they feel around each other, and in the company of their family. You may disagree. It certainly leaves you free to put your own interpretation on the father son story theme.. Maybe he was much closer to his mother ... likely she was the musical one and the reawakening of the son's love for music only makes the father's attempts to deal with his own grief the harder.