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Around the Bend

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Around the Bend (2004)

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24 %
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Reviews Counted:29

Fresh:7

Rotten:22

Average Rating:4.8/10

Runtime: 85 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $117,093

Synopsis: "Around the Bend" is inspired by the relationship between writer-director Jordan Roberts and the absentee father he barely knew. It tells the story of four generations of men who are suddenly... "Around the Bend" is inspired by the relationship between writer-director Jordan Roberts and the absentee father he barely knew. It tells the story of four generations of men who are suddenly brought together by the chance to uncover the truth about their family's past. The journey will take them out on the road to a world full of surprises-some comic, some dramatic, and all of them personal. Jason Lair (Josh Lucas) is a simple man with a simple wish: a normal life. This isn't an easy goal for the mild-mannered bank employee: Jason is newly separated from his wife, who has left him to care for their six-year-old son Zach (Jonah Bobo) while she paints in Nepal, and his ailing grandfather Henry (Oscar® winner Michael Caine), a former archaeologist close to death, is investigating alternative rituals for his impending funeral ("I'm not going in the ground!" he protests.) So when Jason's estranged father and Henry's son Turner (Oscar® winner Christopher Walken), whose checkered past includes exploits from the musical to the criminal, pays the family an unexpected visit, nothing is 'simple' or 'normal' in Jason's life anymore. In the coming days, the somewhat reluctant Lair men will embark on a trip not only through the mythic beauty of the Desert Southwest, but across the family's own rocky emotional landscape. Forced together by a deep loss, these very different people find a great deal along the way-devastating secrets, amazing discoveries and, just as Henry wanted… each other. Warner Independent Pictures presents a Kirkham-Lewitt Production "Around the Bend," directed by Jordan Roberts from his original screenplay. Producers are Elliott Lewitt and Julie Kirkham. Executive Producer is Ronald G. Smith. Director of photography is Michael Grady. Production designer is Sarah Knowles. Editor is Francoise Bonnot, A.C.E. Costume designer is Alix Friedberg. Composer is David Baerwald. The film stars Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas and Michael Caine. Also in the film are Glenne Headly, Jonah Bobo and Kathryn Hahn. -- © Warner Independent [More]

Starring: Christopher Walken, Joshua Lucas, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly

Starring: Christopher Walken, Joshua Lucas, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly, Jonah Bobo, Norbert Weisser, David Eigenberg

Director: Jordan Roberts

Director: Jordan Roberts
Screenwriter: Jordan Roberts
Producer: Julie Kirkham, Elliot Lewitt
Composer: David Baerwald
Studio: Warner Independent

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Reviews for Around the Bend

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1 - 9 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/01/06
Empire Magazine
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First-time filmmaker Jordan Roberts worked on this project for years, but merely ended up with dreary cliche.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
10/15/04
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
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It's so programmatic, so dogged in hitting the right steps at the right time that it completely lacks spontaneity.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
10/15/04
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
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It's one of those films where the characters always seem to be Behaving, as if ordinary life has to be jacked up into eccentricity.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
10/15/04
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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This might have been a standard-issue, generational male-bonding road movie, if not for the amazing work of Christopher Walken.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
10/11/04
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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Around the Bend unflinchingly deals with grief and emotional scars, but it offers a life-affirming meditation on familial ties that bind.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
10/08/04
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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Gentlemen, it's a male chick flick -- 'The Dirty Secrets of the Ya-Ya Brotherhood.'

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
10/07/04
Carina Chocano
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
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Jordan Roberts's debut as a film director is a heavily padded, thinly conceived, well-meaning movie about four generations of men.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
10/07/04
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
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Years of tinkering have left a residue of predictability -- a forced feeling of familial bonding burdened with an air of determined idiosyncrasy.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
09/29/04
Eddie Cockrell
Eddie Cockrell
Variety
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1 - 9 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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