Scenic Route (2013)

Carter: "Daily failing it's a lonely miserable business."

By Kevin and Michael Goetz
With Josh Duhamel and Dan Fogler

I have to say the cover of Scenic Route totally made me want to see it, although it first looked to me like a horror movie with the cover, after reading the short story on IMDb it appeared like an interesting psychological thriller and I decided to see it.

Two friends are driving through the desert when their car breaks down. As the panic first strikes, they lash on each other and criticize each other's lifestyle. One has sold out and gave up on his guitar dreams, settled, has a job he hates, wife and kid. The other one is homeless, lives in his car, dropped out of law school and follows his dream of becoming a writer. Their fights which is first verbal escalates into a physical fight. With the added desert climate and its canned heat days and cold nights, food and water deprivation, their physical and mental states deteriorate rapidly while also taking away their chances at looking normal to any car that would pass by.

The movie is well written whether it is through their lifestyle arguments or the psychological twists that we see evolving. The mohawk of Josh Duhamel is quite memorable and might be remembered for quite a while. I always enjoy movies that deal with insanity and was pleased to see their conditions deteriorate. The desert is very bare as it is to be expected and we are not meeting many new faces but the desert itself plays the secondary character being both the villain and the potential hope.

The shouting of Dan Fogler impended a little on their arguments in my opinion as it wasn't very clear. Another thing that felt misleading was the make up and bruises which didn't always seem linear. The end will probably divide a lot of the viewers with some hating it while others will enjoy it, I feel part of the latter. I thought I wouldn't like it but thinking about it, I think it had some good psychological element and it did make some sense.

I liked: Interesting friends and foes relationship. Threatening desert. Fading sanity.

I disliked: A few too many false hopes and red herrings. The only flashback we get is pretty useless and just to include a sex scene.

70/100
I found it interesting although it has many dark clouds, the writing was quite nice.