Around the Bend

Amazon.com

Around the Bend concerns four generations of Lair men. There's eccentric patriarch Henry (Michael Caine), prodigal son Turner (Christopher Walken), bitter grandson Jason (Josh Lucas), and great-grandson Zach (Jonah Bobo). Shortly after Turner arrives in L.A. for a surprise visit, the ailing Henry dies. The remaining three take off on the road trip he had insisted on before his untimely passing. Jason is none too pleased--after all, his father ran out on him 30 years ago--but it was his Henry's dying wish. So there they are on the way to New Mexico, where long-buried secrets will finally be revealed. Heartwarming, if predictable, Around the Bend represents the softer side of its three leads and Walken is particularly effective in an uncharacteristic role (i.e., miles away from The Deer Hunter). His Turner is a bit odd, to be sure, but mostly he's just a regular guy who's made a few--rather substantial--mistakes. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

"Around the Bend" 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.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurette:"It's A Good Day" The Making of Around the Bend
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

quiet little gem of a film.......2007-07-08

If you need lots of action in your movies or a huge story arc, this might not be for you. But if you like great acting, quirky charcters and sweet, unexpected moments that will touch you, watch this movie!

Fathers and Sons, Love and Forgiveness .......2007-02-26

It's just that it's so true to the story line. The movie moves inevitably, in measured moments, toward the final words between father and son that leave us feeling drained and redeemed. It's wacky and has moments of madness, like the friend's mother who has dementia and disrupts the reading of the will, part of which is written on Post-It notes. But the defining moment of sweetness that signals the son's immediate, unquestioning forgiveness of the father's long-ago cruel act, leaves the viewer gently stunned at how right we humans can get it, once in a very great while. It's about how fathers and sons can love each other wholly and completely, no matter what, and it's about how that love, and the healing it brings, can be such a fine thing.

Good cast, good story, funny and tugs at your heart.......2006-09-11

What a great movie for me to discover, and I wonder why I missed it before. A great cast with Michael Caine and Christopher Walken. Both have great roles, good scripts, and good acting. Michale Caine plays the Grandfather who has a shattered family that re-unite at the very end of his life. Christopher Walken is the absentee son who returns unexpectedly, Josh Lucas the grandson, and Johna Bobo the great grandson. With Caine's death, he sends his "Tribe" on a journey as his last wish. With the journey comes the runiting of a family, mending of souls, and a whole lot of Fried Chicken. This has plenty of laughs, and several twists. Even though Michael Caine is in the movie for only about 15 minutes, his role has got to be one of his best pieces ever done. Christopher Walken is his own stellar self, funny yet dark, just what his role needed. Josh Lucas plays his role of bitter son to a T, and Jonah Bobo is excellent in the innocent child slot. I highly recommend this movie.

Mood film~If YOU'RE in The Mood.......2006-07-04

AROUND THE BEND is existential SOAP OPERA.As usual Christopher Walken is great.(He's fifty X more interesting as rebel angel GABRIEL in cult classic PROPHECY~trilogy epic about...Paradise Lost-like...Second War of Hosts of Heaven). Cast mates,particularly usually exceptional Michael Caine, are adequate (squandered)in their tasks.[Caveat:great grandson Jonah Bobo is handed too many zen-like ephiphany/dialogue moments for my liking. From A.A.Milne's WINNIE-the-POOH okay; not this little Lair Lukester "clone" who's just tad too cool for school.]

INDIE director-writer Jordan Roberts has consciously over-reached himself in quest for family love reconciliation-REDEMPTION.The film...despite/because-of "intellectual" machinery...is pretentious. KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN gambit is over-done "Fool's Mate opening" that gets transparently old very fast.Plot has two very clever moments (when Walken throws away his son's cell phone which PM Yuppster drapes around himself... graced/talon-like a blest Crucifix; and when WALKEN steals a Red Neck homie's dog as GOOD THIEF). But this odyssey is thematically predictable.As is superb vista photography montages employed to display director's technical verve and "karma" spiritual depth. (Hip...Dylanesque...
sound track may please as "Om-on"or annoy as bogosity.)

AROUND THE BEND isn't a bad movie.I like Indie efforts(cf:OPEN WATER).But many "film course" efforts are KFC greasy when they insist--as ATB does--importance they lack(le film-manque).These are movies Cannes-like critics go grapey over while scorning family movies like SUPERMAN RETURNS that are indisputably entertaining. Roberts is talented and deserves a swim with big time SHARKS of Open Water Hollywood. Despite Roman Cornona crowns plastered all-over DVD case oriflamming AROUND THE BEND as "MASTERPIECE";it's not.It is a mood film.If YOU'RE in the mood,you'll enjoy it. If not,you might just drive aound the bend for KFC to existentially eat and experience "illumination" such quests so powerfully provide.(Yeah right:3 & 1/2 KFC stars)

Intimate.......2006-06-20

This is what is known as a "mid-sized movie", full of recognizable, but good, character actors, engaging dialog, strong intimacy, and no need to dazzle and impact a viewpoint of the audience. As that, it is perfect.

The plot involves four generations of the Lair family, a cooky great-grandfather who deals with his impending death by thinking up alternative funerals, a grandfather who has been missing for decades due to a history of alcoholism and theivery, a son who "just wants to be normal" (we always know how well that works in family-driven films...), and a grandson who wants to go along for the ride because it will be fun. Once the grandfather (Walken) comes home, the great-grandfather makes some plans... only he has to die to make sure his progenitors will carry it through. Enter a roadtrip, some spice-of-life, and a generous heaping of self-discovery, and voila, you get the prototype for this film.

I think what's interesting about this movie is that it's full of dazzling panoramic longshots of New Mexican sunsets, and yet in those shots maintains a close intimacy with the characters. Intimacy is the defining word in every case for this movie, as even when the characters are trying their darnedness to reject their family, their words bleed a need to be together. And they all know it.

This movie isn't the type to last on the conscious of many viewers because it's so quiet and devoted, but it has strong sticking power to those few who really enjoy its color and colorful characters.

--PolarisDiB

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