RUDDERLESS
DIRECTOR: William H Macy
CAST: Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Huffman, Laurence Fishburne, Selena Gomez, Ben Kweller, Ryan Dean
CLASSIFICATION: 13L
RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes
RATING: ****
BILLY Crudup manages to transcend the manipulative plot of Rudderless to anchor this small-in-scope indie film. He is supported by a cast of strong actors, and even when you can see where it is going, the strong characterisation keeps you watching.
This is director William H Macy’s first feature film (he did a tv film back in 1988) and he proves to be an actor’s director – not surprising. He carves out a space for the actors to create complex characters without them having to explain their motivations in their dialogue.
Crudup, especially, is contained and focused, but highly empathetic as Sam, a high- flying advertising executive cut down by grief at the death of his son.
Macy pops up on screen as the taciturn owner of the bar where Sam discovers an open mic session, while Laurence Fishburne provides a bit of levity as the soon-to-retire music store owner and Felicity Huffman is solid as sensible ex-wife, Emily.
Drowning his sorrows in alcohol, Sam tunes out everything he thought he wanted out of life in order to not have to confront what has happened. Discovering a box of his son’s demos, Sam starts to obsessively listen to the works in an effort to figure out this child he apparently never knew.
And, without trying too hard, he inadvertently starts a band and finds local success playing the music. “Inadvertently” because it is really the instigation of enthusiastic, troubled but musically inclined Quentin (Yelchin) who finds a focus in what he thinks is Sam’s music.
While we never really delve too deeply into what exactly is troubling Quentin – for a talkative person he says very little about himself – this is about Sam’s relationship with the young man.
The We need to Talk About Kevin plot twist which starts rumbling halfway through – apparent to the audience – and then comes to a head towards the end is not exactly subtly handled, but the film is more about Sam’s redemption than that of his son. By the end of the film he has to face his memories and decide whether to move forward.
The original music they start making – musician Ben Kweller makes his acting debut as band member Willie – lifts the film above its melancholic plot thanks to Solidstate who wrote all but one track (from Fink). A lot of the emotional communication comes through in the music, especially when Sam cannot confront his own feelings, reminding us why we make music in the first place.
If you liked Begin Again or About Time, you will like this.