The Go-Getter

Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel, Jena Malone, and Maura Tierney

Written and Directed by: Martin Hynes

I love a road movie. Period. I suppose because I don’t get to do much traveling, I really get off watching aimless people going places and doing things…or going places and doing nothing. Sometimes nothing is more interesting. Either way, put someone in a car, put them on the road, send a camera with them, turn the music up, and I am in. I think of movies like Paris, Texas, Little Miss Sunshine, Easy Rider, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, and even Dumb and Dumber and I just love the idea of being out there and figuring it all out. I even enjoyed much of the horribly self-indlugent The Brown Bunny. Paris, Texas may well be the best road movie ever made, and there is more than a little bit of that film’s influence here in the recently-released on DVD The Go-Getter.

Lou Taylor Pucci, indie films most recent go to lost boy, plays Mercer, the 19 year old protagonist who steals a car and sets off on the road to deliver some important bit of information to his long lost half-brother, Arlen. Mere hours on the road, a mobile phone begins to ring. He pulls off the road, panics a bit, and takes the call. The lovely voice of the wonderful actress/current indie-rock goddess Zooey Deschanel is on the other end. Mercer is shocked at her calmness, even eagerness for him to take the car and accomplish his task…and she knows who he is, though he has no idea how. The two have never met.

It’s a great set up, and a wonderful device. We know immediately that the two will develop feelings, but wonder if they will ever actually meet. Writer/Director Hynes does a great job of making that an uncertainty until just the right moment. Their conversations are sometimes fairly serious, sometimes fairly silly, but we really feel that these are two lonely people who, in some bizarre way, really need each other. When Deschanel’s character finally joins the trip, the movie takes on a new life. There are few actresses that can change the entire landscape of a film with their voice, and then change it again with her presence. Deschanel is an actress of rare gifts, and always a joy to watch. Her last two film (The Happening and Yes Man) were both positively unwatchable…The Happening making the top of my worst movies of 2008. It’s nice to see her return to form here.

Mercer’s trip starts in Oregon, leads him to California, to Reno, Nevada where he spends some interesting time with a long-lost middle school love, back through California, and eventually to Mexico. Along the way, he finds out that his half-brother (18 years his senior) is, shall we say, not a very good person. Still he pushes on, and finally finds Arlen, leading to a fairly predictable, but still quite surprising confrontation. He’s clearly a kid with much bottled up, but you still don’t really believe he’s capable of what happens.

As a film, it’s quite an achievement, bringing a spirit to the road movie that is rarely seen today. It’s funny, sad, sweet, and sour, and very well realized…all in a nice 93 minute package. This is the second feature Martin Hynes has helmed, the first being a little movie I’ve never heard of called The Big Split back in 1999, though he also wrote the interesting/awful Stealing Harvard and starred as the young George Lucas in the wonderful short film George Lucas In Love. He’s clearly a filmmaker to watch. He has a wonderful sense of space and timing, and knows how to set a mood. He is aided here by the excellent music of M. Ward, one of my current favorite musicians. He’s also an Oregonian, and his playful/haunted music brings just the right tone to this film.

If you like road movies, you will love this one. Even if you don’t like road movies, I think there is still much to like about The Go-Getter. An intriguing story and really nice performances from a slew of up and coming actors set to the great American landscape. It’s a surprising trip that never really leads exactly where you expect. Find it out on Netflix, or find it online somewhere, or maybe even make the trip to the local video store like I do and check out The Go-Getter. You will not find a better way to spend an hour and a half this week.