#road within

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

Have you seen The Road Within (2014)?

Yes

No

Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onJul 1, 2024

[e-eveille]

[narrativekingdom-blog]

The Road Within - Film Review

This is a film I was wary of watching after watching too many films based around ‘social disabilities’ that just use them as cheap devices. The first few minutes made me fret even more, but by the end I was on this films page.

The overall plot is pretty simple. A young man, Vincent, with Tourette’s Syndrome (played by Robert Sheehan) loses his mother and his father Robert (played by Robert Patrick) sticks him in a facility.

While there he is forced to bunk up with a man with OCD (Alex played by Dev Patel) and falls for a young woman with anorexia (Marie played by Zoe Kravitz).

Vincent is determined to take his dead mother’s ashes to the ocean where she wanted them spread. After a sequence of events Marie ends up with the keys to the facilities shrink’s (Dr Mia Rose played by Kyra Sedgwick) car. Together, and with Alex as an unwilling passenger at first, the three head off to find the ocean.

I found the setup for this film a little hard to swallow. I see the need for it, but is the part of the film where they really push the social and debilitating effects of the three illnesses. What they don’t at this stage is explain any of it. However, as the film goes along they really do, and this is when the film shines.

Essentially this is a road trip movie with three people with illnesses they have been told are debilitating. What we find out though is that all three can do a lot more then they think they can when push comes to shove. Great for us to watch, but having known a few people with these illnesses it can be a little hard to swallow.

To my mind they do find a good balance. These illnesses are hard for those afflicted to understand, and for those of us not so afflicted we often seem to think it is mind over matter. This film really digs into how this is not true, and how even three people with differing illnesses some people lump together can’t understand what is wrong with the other.

The side story with Vincent’s father and the shrink is a little too Lifetime for me, but that is not to say it does not add to the film. It is not only those afflicted with these illnesses that suffer, and we sometimes forget how hard it can be on relatives and loved ones. But with a little love and understanding, maybe things can be better.

All in all a film I really enjoyed. Yes it has its awkward moments and yes it can be awkward to watch. I think at times that is the point. But it really pushes the message home that even though these people are ill, they still have the right to live a life just like everybody else.

Maybe not one for the young kids (there is some bad language) but I wouldn’t keep all kids away for fear of the subject matter. Worth the watch.