Trucker

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Herbert F Predictable but terrific acting especially Michelle Monagham make it absorbing and an enjoable film. Watched free on Kanopy. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/17/23 Full Review Kyle J One of those films without a plot. You're supposed to be gripped by a mother who has to learn to love her son. If you want 90 minutes of that, enjoy. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review ronald h Two reviews of first and second viewings: 1) A film like this, which has a very simple plot, relies entirely on the skill of the actors. Everyone in the cast is up to the task, especially Michelle Monaghan. There's really no reason to like a mother who abandoned her kid and husband to go off and become a long distance truck driver, but as the story progresses, we can see that she has a heart; she just keeps it hidden. When her ex is stricken with cancer, he sends their kid Peter to stay with her. Mother and son are such strangers, Peter calls her Diane. Their relationship is, of course, contentious. He's a pain to have around when she's trying to stay on the road as much as possible so she can someday pay off her one bedroom house. Audiences will expect the usual sappy "estranged parent eventually grows to love her son" routine, but the story avoids that kind of sentiment. Suffice it to say that the two come to an understanding of each other. My biggest gripe with the film is the obnoxious soundtrack music, a bunch of whiny folk singers I have, thankfully never heard before. Why do filmmakers insist on using awful soundtrack music? Back room Hollywood deals, I guess. Other than that, there's a lot to recommend here: realistic characters and dialogue, skillful cinematography, and a story line that could have lapsed into utter predictability but manages to stay out of that trap. The ending is delicate and perfect. 2) I watched this film a second time, about a year after the first viewing (don't ask why). This time, I immediately saw its flaws and contrivances: Michelle Monaghan looks more like a Hollywood model than a truck driver, and her performance is strained and phony. I hated the soundtrack music even more than I hated it the first time. The story of the unwanted kid, which is supposed to pull at your heartstrings, seemed corny and melodramatic. The ending, which upon the first viewing seemed perfect, struck me as fake and affected. Moral(s) of the story: Great movies get better when watched again. Not this one. And our perception of a movie depends greatly on our mood at the time. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Diane Ford (Michelle Monaghan) lives a solitary life. She loves her job as big rig driver, alcohol, and one night stands with strangers. Her life is exactly how she wants it to be, until he ex gets sick and she's forced to take in her 12 year old son, Peter (Jimmy Bennett), a son she never wanted, and has no idea what to do with. Trucker comes across as an edgy lifetime movie, with the sick ex-husband, the angry woman with the scarred past, and the child who is going to force her to change. Unfortunately, I don't like Lifetime movies, because they are so predictable and one-sided. That is exactly what Trucker is aside from the indiscriminate sex and cursing. I found almost nothing interesting about this film, except for the chemistry between mother and son. Peter is the best part of the film, because he's this weird looking kid in heavy metal shirts, calling his mother out on all of her bull. The things he says to her are pretty shocking and quite funny, and that's the only thing I can really say I enjoyed about this movie. It's clear that the writers were going for this dark, mid-western dramatic thing, that I like to call modern dark noir, (as seen in films like Winter's Bone), but they fall well short. Trucker just doesn't have enough substance to compete with films like that and is predictable to a fault. If I were describe this film in one word, it would be boring, and that is never a good thing. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member This one flew, or rather, trucked under the radar. A real gem of a film featuring a standout Michelle Monaghan performance. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member fairly short (~90 minutes), solid performances by Michelle Monaghan & Nathan Fillion, but I was less impressed by the rest of the cast... Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Trucker

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