Trucker (2008)

Directed by: James Mottern
Starring: Michelle Monaghan

**1/2

Middle of the road character pieces like Trucker often times rely on a performance to carry the film and mask a mediocre story.  Fortunately, in Trucker, the story does have some depth and originality to it. Unfortunately, contrary to so much I've read about her performance, Michelle Monaghan is not very good here.  She manages to escape the beauty queen look and sidekick role she's had to this point but for me Trucker only convinced me that she's more suitable in that capacity. She manages simplicty just fine but when real drama ensues, she really drops the ball.

Monaghan plays Diane Ford who's life takes a dramatic turn when, follow me on this, her son, Peter (Jimmy Bennet) comes to live with her because his Dad Len (Benjamin Bratt) has cancer and his current wife can't take care of Peter because her mother just died and she needs to go be with her family... deep breath... Diane hasn't taken care of her son in ten years since she and Len called it quits and she went on with her life on the road to nowhere driving a truck, while Len took full custody of Peter. In those ten years, Peter has aged to eleven, old enough to understand that his mother is a bitch and abandoned him. Diane doesn't hide the fact that she didn't want a child and really doesn't seem to have any regrets about leaving. She acts as if she likes her job. She's owns her own rig, she travels all over the country, plans to soon pay off her house, yet despite her psuedo happiness, she's not shy about claiming she wants to change. Its not for her son, however. When it comes to him, she expects him to understand her lifestyle and she uses that as an excuse to avoid the responsibilty that comes with him. A lot of this story falls into the relm of cliche but where it gets somewhat original is in the viewpoint we're exposed to.

Typically, a movie surrounding the custody of an 11-year old will cover the relationship said child has with the remaining parent. In films like Kramer vs. Kramer (a much better movie and shame on me for comparing) the mother who leaves is painted as the villian and while, yes we do eventually hear Streep's explanation, its for the sake of getting her son back, so who knows how true it is. In Trucker, we get a very real and believable idea of how the villian lives. Diane isn't portrayed as a villian, just someone who got on with her life with out a certain part of it being there. The arrangement she made with her ex-husband appeared to have worked and it left everyone content, if not happy.

This being a character piece, it was important that we believed in the characters. Despite the performance of Monaghan, I do think this movie succeeded in this area. Jimmy Bennet is clearly a child actor, but at the same time he came across as an angry kid who's dealt with enough growing up that he understands and reacts to things better and more intelligently than most his age. This may not have come across through a young Christian Bale-style performance, but either way, it came across and credit is due. Possibly the best performance in the film (and this isn't to suggest its all that great, just good) is that by Nathan Fillion who plays Diane's friend (only friend) and neighbor Runner. Even though he seems to have adopted a Matthew McConaghy southern accent for no reason, his character is steady as it goes and he manages to add some structure to both Diane's life and the film itself.  I believe his purpose in the film was to make Diane's changing relationship with her son more believable. I'm not sure it worked out, but Fillion definitely did his part.

I'd heard some interesting things about this film, mostly Monaghan's turn from pretty face to pretty good actress.  I read that Demi Moore was first considered for the role of Diane. Well, I think Monaghan was a better choice for a few reasons. Even with some successful films under her belt, she's still unknown enough to work as Diane but again, she really failed to hit the important dramatic notes that would have made this film much more emotionally charged. It was very difficult to invest myself fully in the relationships, in the conflicts and ultimately in the story when everytime something important happened, I was distracted by Monaghan's inability to capture the intensity of the scene.   First time writer-director James Mottern made a lot of good decisions with this movie from how to develop relationships and where to end them, but I don't think Monaghan was among them.

Trucker