Synopsis:
Teenage granddaughter (Julia Garner) is pregnant, needs money by end of day for an abortion, goes to grandma (Lily Tomlin) for help. Grandma is broke. They go on a self-discovery road trip to find the money.
You know, when these self-discovery movies get it right, you feel like you’ve been hit in the chest as you exit the cinema. With this movie, it’s like a “meh”.
It’s not great. Lots of cliches which they get away with due to the fast pace of the movie and because of how Tomlin is able to draw you into her character. Note I didn’t say draw you into the story. Because I didn’t feel like I cared what was happening at all. I didn’t care that they were on a time crunch to raise money for the abortion, I couldn’t give two shits about the granddaughter. I was only interested in how Tomlin’s character and past unfolded as the movie progressed. It’s an interesting character alright, lesbian, published poet, feisty grandma with a colourful past (<- all I can say without spoiling too much). At the end of the movie, I was like “meh”. I wanted to like it but it falls short.
Julia Garner, the granddaughter, is ok, not the best actress but she’s a PYT and that works. I keep getting distracted by how deathly pale her skin is though. In certain scenes when she’s shot in the bright sunlight, she almost blends into the light.
White as a sheet!
Perfect for the next vampire role
Some known names in the movie that I feel are wasted:
– John Cho as the coffee shop owner.
Really, they could have gotten ANY generic actor to play that role. It was SO tedious.
– Marcia Gay Harden as the mother.
She has very little screen time and the character is just not very fleshed out. Full of tired cliches. (I’m angry at my mother, so I grew up angry, angry at my daughter, pushed her away, angry in my work, work work work.)
Tell me this is not the cliched career bitch profile
Sam Elliott! How marvellous is he?! I can’t say I know a lot of his filmography but he’s got such presence and he ate up all the scenes he was in. Soooo sexy, much like the other 70-ish dreamboat Patrick Stewart!
Sam Elliott as Karl
Overall: watchable, and again, Tomlin is very enjoyable to watch. Her performance feels so effortless. But I doubt you’ll get any lasting takeaways from the movie.
Random Nonsense 