This Is Martin Bonner

After viewing writer and director Chad Hartigan's latest film "Morris From America", I went back to look at this 2013 movie of his. I'm very glad I did, as I found this indie to be a most wonderful and engaging movie, which I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish.

The writing is impeccably sharp here, with the characters being vivid and real. Paul Eenhoom stars as Martin Bonner, who is working as a volunteer for a Christian outreach program specializing in helping recently released prisoners adjust to society again. Richmond Arquette co-stars as Travis Holloway, who has just finished serving a 12 year sentence for manslaughter (driving drunk), in a Nevada penitentiary. The film will focus on the bonding that will occur between the two men, as Travis attempts to get a new start to his life, and I thought both actors were superb in their roles.

All in all, if you don't need an action flick to keep you happy and you like this type of character driven movie, then I can highly recommend this one.

I came into this film expecting a character driven story without much action and that is exactly what I got. Overall, I liked the film. Each character's back story helped guide the audience into understanding what was currently going on. The characters are so well explained that I was able to relate to them and empathize with them. Travis is such a heartbreaking character that you almost feel relieved Martin comes along into his life. I can't leave out that beautiful 360 degree pan the camera takes in the hotel parking lot. Really effective method to help put yourself into the character's position of confusion and being at a crossroads, not knowing where to go or how to proceed. The only thing that left me a little unsatisfied with the story was that it kind of felt the relationship between Martin and Travis was simply one way. I don't feel Travis' character gave anything to Martin's character. That was the only thing I had against the film. Paul Eenhoorn and Richmond Arquette gave exquisite performances. Pretty decent film and can't wait to see how this director continues to develop as he continues to make movies.

THIS IS MARTIN BONNER focuses on the lives of two misfits trying to adjust to a new life in the desert city of Reno, Navada. Australian émigré Martin (Paul Eenhoorn) tries to adjust to life as a volunteer in a local jail after having experienced a crisis of faith followed by long-term unemployment. Travis Holloway (Richmond Arquette) is released from the same jail, and attempts to forge a new life outside by living in a seedy motel and working as a car park attendant. Both men have grown-up children: Martin communicates mostly by phone, while Travis' daughter Diana (Sam Buchanan) hasn't seen her father since he went to prison twelve years previously. When father and daughter do meet, the conversation remains awkward, to say the least. Chad Hartigan's low-budget drama focuses on the loneliness of the two protagonists' lives as they spend their evenings in nondescript rooms, roam the streets either on foot, in the car or on the bus, and try to connect with people around them. Reno is hardly the place for lonely men to live; the streets are deprived of pedestrians, while cars endlessly shoot by on the interstate highway. The skies are crystal-clear, but the architecture seems to be deliberately designed to shut out as much daylight as possible. Sean McElwee's cinematography sums up the protagonists' lives through a clever use of framing; on several occasions their profiles are seen at the extreme left or right of the frame looking desolately at the landscape stretching endlessly before them. Even when they try to communicate, they are verbally challenged: what is not said is more significant than what is said. The narrative of THIS IS MARTIN BONNER unfolds at a slow pace, but the film remains a penetrating study of life in an impersonal city.

I decided to write this review in order to counterbalance the negative one posted by Farron34.

I liked this movie very much, because it showed real people and their simple lives. Because for Travis just out of prison, even a squalid motel room is a gift, and you perceive it without one word said in that regard. The way he walks out in the chilly air with a hot cup of coffee to look at the "outside" with a fantastic 360° pan around him showing real America: freeway, cars, asphalt, anonymous buildings, bright advertisement - nothing exceptional but the beautiful sunset light of the Nevada desert.

I liked the way it criticizes the Church of Christians, of the zealots, of those who live off the church and its charity but the observation is done gently and respectfully. There is more but you have to see it for yourself, the joy is in the details.

If you want spectacle and glitz this movie is not for you but if you want to observe a few human beings dealing with their banal, only life, filled with the little things that make it worth living, well, this is an excellent movie.

No, "This Is Martin Bonner" doesn't have any space ships, murdering computers, murdering apes or 20-minute acid trips, but something about it reminds me of the epic 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think it's the way it approaches the concept of "god", like 2001, presenting the audience with a vision that each person may interpret in a different way.

"This Is Martin Bonner" is a seemingly uneventful 3 days in the lives of Martin Bonner, a Christian social worker who helps ex-convicts adjust to civilian life, and Travis, an ex-con who has just been released. There is a recurring religious angle that pops up occasionally (Martin Bonner was an ex priest who lost his faith), but it's presented in an objective way which allows us to see it the way we want to see it. It neither preaches nor bashes the Christian religion but instead takes us straight up the middle. Like 2001, it presents a powerful message that may be interpreted as spiritual or mundane, godly or existentialistically. But whichever way you take it, there *is* a message.

It's hard to say anything more without injecting my own subjective spin, so I won't. I'll just say this is a slow-moving film with many pauses for reflection, many questions, many answers, and characters whom you generally like. There are no villains, no traditional conflicts other than those each character individually faces within his heart. There are certainly no car chases or shootouts, so if you're looking for that, this ain't the place. But if you're looking for a deep slice of life, then here it is.

I would compare this to other quiet yet powerful films like "About Schmidt" with Jack Nicholson, Wim Wenders' "Paris Texas" and maybe the French "I've Loved You So Long". If you like films that touch on religious themes without coming on too strong in either direction, this fits right alongside the excellent "Sympathy for Delicious" (about a young priest and his faithless rockstar buddy) and "Into Temptation" (about a naïve priest trying to stop a prostitute's suicide).