Thai filmmaker Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya’s glossy “One for the Road” was produced by Wong Kar-wai, but don’t let that fool you into thinking you’re in for top-tier cinema, no, the resulting film is a bland romantic melodrama that so desperately wants to be loved.
Although sharing the pop-culture infused visual schemes of Poonpiriya’s slightly more accomplished “Bad Genius,” the amount of sugarcoated romanticism at work in this latest film of his, not to mention the ridiculously lengthy 138 minute runtime, felt like a marathon to sit through for this writer. There’s more plot here than the film can handle.
A road trip filled with a hip soundtrack and irritating nostalgia, not to mention yucky YA cancer drama tropes, “One the Road” continuously switches gears in its narrative, always unsure about its identity. It time-hops, starting off in ultra-hip present-day Manhattan where Thai-born Boss (Tor Thanapob) owns a swanky bar he opened with family money. He’s owner and bartender, and that results, as a snappy montage shows us, in multiple one night stands with women. He’s the consummate ladies’ man whose life gets rattled when former best friend Aood (Ice Natara) suddenly calls in the middle of the night, revealing he’s dying of leukaemia. Aood asks Boss to fly back and help him settle a few errands before he dies.
There seems to be a lot of unspoken history between Boss and Aood, a feeling of awkwardness that signifies something clearly went wrong in their friendship many years ago. And yet, Boss still agrees fly over to Aood now hairless and thin due to chemotherapy. When they meet up, Boss is told the meaning of this sudden invite, Aood wants to go on a road trip to clear things up with past girlfriends, he can’t drive and needs Boss to chauffeur him around.
The resulting film is a convoluted mess. A soap opera that deteriorates with every ensuing sequence. As Boss drives his sickly pal from ex to ex, the tonal shifting of the film becomes a distraction; we go from comedy to drama to damn-near slapstick. To make matters worse, the latter half of “One for the Road” becomes a totally different movie, going back a number of years to show how Aood and Boss met. The decision to practically change the entire course of the film fits with the skittishly ADD stylings of “One for the Road.”
SCORE: C
And just like that, after Venice and Telluride, the Best Actor race is taking shape, with Andrew Scott (“Elsinore”) and John Malkovich (“Wild Horse Nine”) emerging as major contenders.