natalie-leveck

I enjoyed watching this movie at the Chicago Film Festival with a lively, responsive crowd. It's a character-driven story featuring two unique individuals, against a backdrop of our beautiful, expansive country. As the journey progresses through big cities, desolate deserts and incredible canyons, the characters grow in their own personal journeys, confronting head on the reality of their life's decisions. For Claire, it's a marriage that is falling apart and a strained relationship with a father who just had a heart attack. For Thom, it's going broke pursuing a career he loves, and lying to his family about it out of shame and embarrassment. As the characters drive across the country together, they eventually reach two destinations -- California and the personal realizations that they need to change the patterns of their lives in pursuit of something more meaningful.

I recently saw this short at a film festival in Los Angeles. The directing was superb, and the sound design was top notch. In fact, those two aspects of the film were really the highlight. I hope to see much more work by Marco Santiago in the future.

I thought the major downfall was the lead, who's performance fell flat and was distracting at points. Ronnie was supposed to be a woman fighting for her family, unaffected by the people beating her up, and unfortunately, the actress just couldn't deliver lines in a way that conveyed these things. Her tone was the same when she was talking to her kid and when she was talking to the bad guys.

Finally, the writing was somewhat predictable. Nonetheless, the effects, sound, cinematography and directing all made up for it.