Long Road Home is better than I expected it to be. I began to watch it expecting a cheesy old family flick, only to find that it's...actually pretty good.
The actors, above all the ones who play Seth and his grandfather, act superbly. The beautiful forests shown set the mood perfectly, and the direction is almost flawless. But the element of the film I love the most is the writing. The emotional struggles the characters face have never come across as forced, and neither, surprisingly, do the brief moments of comic relief. They act in this film as real people would act, something many independent films cannot boast of.
There are only two things in this film which I must criticize: the pace, which a couple times slows down to show around ten establishing shots after the other (obviously a way to make the film's runtime last 90 minutes), and a dream sequence during the film which feels more confusing honestly than anything else.
These two flaws, luckily, do not have enough impact to ruin the movie. I am therefore proud to declare Long Road Home a excellent, sweet but not sugary, movie for the whole family.
The actors, above all the ones who play Seth and his grandfather, act superbly. The beautiful forests shown set the mood perfectly, and the direction is almost flawless. But the element of the film I love the most is the writing. The emotional struggles the characters face have never come across as forced, and neither, surprisingly, do the brief moments of comic relief. They act in this film as real people would act, something many independent films cannot boast of.
There are only two things in this film which I must criticize: the pace, which a couple times slows down to show around ten establishing shots after the other (obviously a way to make the film's runtime last 90 minutes), and a dream sequence during the film which feels more confusing honestly than anything else.
These two flaws, luckily, do not have enough impact to ruin the movie. I am therefore proud to declare Long Road Home a excellent, sweet but not sugary, movie for the whole family.