World Traveler

Rating:
Summary: World Traveler is World Class
Review: A painful tale of self discovery where the honesty and brillant cinematography provoke a real sense of discomfort throughout, yet in the exposure of painful sentiments, this viewer was forced to consider much.

Rating:
Summary: The Search For Self
Review: Bart Freundlich's "World Traveler" is the ultimate travel movie for it is a search for, as Richard (David Keith) says to his son, Cal (Billy Crudup) by way of explaining his desertion of Cal and his Mother, "a better life." And more to the point it is Cal's search for himself, his place in the world and ultimately what direction his life will be going in.
Cal, married, living in NYC with 3 three year old son decides one morning to leave it all in search of....who knows what? It is extremely ironic that in the last several months we have had two other films, very different in tone, conception and realization, dealing with the same theme: a man nearing the middle of his life begins to question said life and all its' various permutations: "Lantana" and "Son of the Bride." All three films also share a dream part for the lead male role and meaty, sometimes over-the-top supporting roles for women.
In "World Traveler"besides the heart breaking, sensitive performance of Billy Crudup we have three other supporting roles that add a depth of flavor, a depth of time and place and a depth of sensitivity: Julianne Moore as a whacked out loser very close to a psychotic breakdown, Cleavant Derricks as Cal's co-worker and Mary MacCormack as his wife.
"World Traveler" is shot in middle light and in sumptuous colors which adds its own flavor of longing and dreams unfulfilled. Cal is a picaresque hero in search of truth and good and it proves to be, as is always the case, residing in himself....something that only he can find, something that only he can resolve. And in Cal's case once he realizes that his search is for his father and more to the point why his father left him: he can return to his wife and child.
Bart Freundlich has made a film that touches upon those feelings that we as children never speak of, almost refuse to acknowledge: fear that our parents will abandon us one night; leave without a trace. But in "World Traveler, Freundlich calms us, feeds us a glass of warm milk and assures us that all will be fine in the morning.

Rating:
Summary: That whole non-existent desert road trip schtick
Review: Honestly, I only made it about 15 or 20 minutes into this.
The opening act, I guess was supposed to set the stage, but then it ended and I forgot what it was about.

Then we proceed to the worn-thin territory of the predictable "American desert" drive. The one that only exists in movies, where there is no I-40, and everyone just rambles along in treasured classic cars down roads where there seems to be no cross-country trucking, no traffic, no one heading anywhere, drinking coffee alone somewhere in a non-existent Route 66-type diner out of the director's fantasy with the predictable results:
1) Long lonesome two-lane highways? Check.
2) A diner in the middle of nowhere? Check
3) A waitress in a ridiculous pink outfit that says "Hon"? and offers a refill? Check
4) A jukebox that always seems to play some kind of Patsy Cline or something similar, even though both jukeboxes and Patsy are unknown around the states. No Toby Keith or anything like that. Check.
5) No sports TV at the aforementioned bar. Check.
6) Some kind of gas station that would never meet any sort of legal standard, with a 50-year-old pump. Check.

Well, that's about all I got out of the first 15 minutes. I probably could have gone on, but why bother? Not a single original idea so far. Maybe it gets better. I can't be bothered to find out.

Rating:
Summary: LOOKING FOR TROUBLE
Review: More than sex, food or survival, we are creatures driven to find meaning in our lives (or so it's said by those who claim to know such things). A recent film that taps into that mindset, with varying degrees of success, is now available in a fine digital edition.

Handsome Cal (Billy Crudup) is driving aimlessly across the country in WORLD TRAVELER. He's left his wife and kid and is looking for something else. Something better. Something he can't quite define. Trouble is, he spends so much time drinking and in bars that trouble is his constant companion. This sly film that never explains itself reminds me of Jack Nicholson's rootless wanderings across open landscapes in The Passenger and Five Easy Pieces. Directed by Bart Freundlich (The Myth of Fingerprints) and with affecting performances by Crudup, Julianne Moore, Karen Allen and others, World Traveller is irritating, provocative and open to interpretation.

Rating:
Summary: LOOKING FOR TROUBLE
Review: More than sex, food or survival, we are creatures driven to find meaning in our lives (or so it's said by those who claim to know such things). A recent film that taps into that mindset, with varying degrees of success, is now available in a fine digital edition.

Handsome Cal (Billy Crudup) is driving aimlessly across the country in WORLD TRAVELER. He's left his wife and kid and is looking for something else. Something better. Something he can't quite define. Trouble is, he spends so much time drinking and in bars that trouble is his constant companion. This sly film that never explains itself reminds me of Jack Nicholson's rootless wanderings across open landscapes in The Passenger and Five Easy Pieces. Directed by Bart Freundlich (The Myth of Fingerprints) and with affecting performances by Crudup, Julianne Moore, Karen Allen and others, World Traveller is irritating, provocative and open to interpretation.

Rating:
Summary: A meandering, self-indulgent piece of sh*t.
Review: The title of the review pretty much says it all. View at your own risk.

Rating:
Summary: Wake Me When It's Over
Review: This has got to be one of the most boring not to mention WORST movies I've ever seen. The only saving grace is that Julianne Moore is in it and I feel embarrased for her. What a terrible waste of talent and her time. Typically, I love road movies but do yourself a favor and pass on this one. The main character is so selfish and loathsome that it makes it impossible to immense yourself in the movie which doesn't matter anyway because the movie itself goes nowhere.

Rating:
Summary: Wake Me When It's Over
Review: This has got to be one of the most boring not to mention WORST movies I've ever seen. The only saving grace is that Julianne Moore is in it and I feel embarrased for her. What a terrible waste of talent and her time. Typically, I love road movies but do yourself a favor and pass on this one. The main character is so selfish and loathsome that it makes it impossible to immense yourself in the movie which doesn't matter anyway because the movie itself goes nowhere.

Rating:
Summary: On the road . . . again
Review: Watching a film like this one, you are reminded of how Hollywood has refined the telling of stories into a kind of shorthand, removing ambiguities and complexities, for quick consumption. Central characters are sympathetic and their behavior understandable in a recognizable plot line and a familiar movie genre. The filmmakers set up easy expectations and then either successfully or unsuccessfully fulfill them.

This film has its conventions. It's a road movie that takes the main character cross country from New York to Oregon, meeting people along the way, each illuminating part of his journey. But it frustrates expectations because it gives us a character who is unsympathetic almost from the first scene and whose behavior is hard to understand and sometimes appalling. His inner conflicts are not spelled out for us. Instead, they are signalled by his agitation and heavy drinking, his strange dreams, and the film's fragmented editing. What accounts for his behavior becomes clearer in the end, but even then, the revelations do not exonerate him.

This is a case where watching the film again with the director's commentary helps you come to terms with a story that departs so far from movie conventions. And you can begin to appreciate some of the creative choices made, from the script all the way through to post-production. After leaving his wife and child, abusing another man's trusting friendship, and drunkenly seducing women he finds in bars, the protagonist ironically meets his match by trying to "help" a woman in distress, whom he discovers is far more distressed than he has bargained for. This failed effort at self-redemption further confounds our interest in him. And so the film goes until the journey reaches its end, old questions are answered, some issues are resolved, and choices are made that may be the right ones for a change.

The film was received less than enthusiastically by critics and audiences when it was released. It may some day gain more of a following and certainly deserves a higher regard. Billy Crudup, once again, shows a remarkable ability to live inside a complex and off-putting character. Julianne Moore (who for once is a director's wife on par with the other talent in the cast) and David Keith are excellent. The cinematograhy alternates shadowy night scenes and claustrophobic interiors with brilliant outdoor scenes and sweeping on-the-road landscapes that grow more striking as the characters move westward. The Willie Nelson songs on the soundtrack introduce an undertone of sweet sadness.

I recommend this film for anyone who likes road movies and stories that depart from convention and require a patience and willingness to accept ambiguities for the clues they reveal about characters' inner lives.

Rating:
Summary: Keep Looking
Review: World Traveler is about a guy named Cal (Billy Crudup) in search of self or perhaps a better self. At the beginning of the film he leaves his New York life of wife and child, for no apparent reason because things seem good, for a life on the road. Along the way he meets people and gets in minor adventures. Alas, this film suffers from lack of plot and direction.

What a bizarre movie! Cal is not the kind of guy people want to root for. On his first stop he becomes friends with a man named Carl by forcing Carl to drink and hit on women with him. When Carl's WIFE tells Cal he is an alcoholic Cal tries to kiss her. Then he picks up a hitchhiker ... He runs into a guy in the airport he went to high school with, and although Cal doesn't remember him, the guy offers to buy him a drink so Cal accepts. ... Then there is Julianne Moore's turn in the film. She appears to be fighting for he sanity when Cal meets her, but how far gone she is, is almost absurd. ... And then there is the whole issue of Cal's unexplained abandonment of his wife and son, and his infidelities. Cal is rude, self-centered, conceited, a bad drunk, and he doesn't seem to learn anything. For the duration of the film he seems to be searching for some kind of epiphany ...

So, all in all, Cal seems like a better guy at the beginning of the film then at the end. I'm not sure this is what writer/director Bart Freundlich was going for. Billy Crudup is good and the film is very well shot, with beautiful landscapes, but it is not enough to save this film from it's self. Ultimately, it is trite.