How does a film like this get national distribution when dozens of films exactly like it wallow in Sundance obscurity, never to see the light of day outside Park City?
Around the Bend (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:92
Fresh:27
Rotten:65
Average Rating:4.9/10
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
Reviews for Around the Bend
This is the male equivalent of the chick flick. It could have been titled Divine Secrets of the Da-Da Brotherhood.
In the end Around the Bend isn't an awful movie. It's merely forgettable.
Bend does provide some mild chuckles and gorgeous scenes of rock formations, ruins and blazing sunsets, but it isn't very engaging beyond that.
[W]alks a fine line that many films fall to navigate: the one that divides wacky-for-wacky’s-sake from the wacky kind of oddballness that characterizes, you know, life.
The dynamo performance Walken provides is akin to what Michael Jordan did on the basketball court, making everyone around him better.
Given the plotline, how about a KFC promotion in which their chicken is sold in a bucket that's shaped like an urn?
Endearing performances and a witty script make up for the awkward pacing and maudlin premise. **
An ugly secret changes the mood of the piece from maudlin and trite to jarringly maudlin and trite.
Jordan Roberts' feature debut pulls off the dizzying high-wire act of being both a misty-eyed glimpse into four generations of the men in the Lair family and a steely meditation on manhood, parenting, and the pitfalls thereof.
A sentimental journey, to be sure, but is saved by bleakly humorous moments.
It's a particularly precious form of art-house entertainment, well-acted but ultimately mawkish and forcibly odd, the indie-film equivalent of a Hallmark card.
In Michael Caine and Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas, [Roberts has] surrounded himself with a first-rate cast who, with one exception, seize the day.
Walken manages to deliver something pure and heartfelt here. Unfortunately, he's doing so in a film weighed down by coincidences and quirks.
Seems to think it's extra-crunchy, but winds up a pretty regular affair.
Latest News for Around the Bend
January 12, 2006:
Critical Consensus: A Regal "Holiday," A Well-Trodden "Road," A Tepid "Tristan"
This week at the movies brings us films about a risk-averse woman cutting loose ("Last Holiday"), a groundbreaking underdog basketball team ("Glory Road"),... More...
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