If you remember the lyrics of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Up Around the Bend, you may gather what this strange little film is about. But then you might not - rock lyrics are a bit cloudy at times.
It has Michael Caine as an old boy who loves going to KFC restaurants. On his last legs, he summons his family around him, before dying. Then, in his will, he asks for his ashes to be scattered near the sites of half a dozen KFCs on the way to New Mexico. The ritual brings the relatives together again as they "catch a ride to the end of the highway".
Josh Lucas plays Caine's grandson, who would do anything for a normal life but doesn't look like getting it, and Chris Walken is his estranged father, a man with a chequered past who appears from nowhere and eventually disappears again.
This provides the ravaged looking actor with the kind of eccentric role that he encompasses very watchably. But writer-director Jordan Roberts orchestrates the road movie as if certain it has tons of significance - maybe it has. But, unlike Creedence Clearwater, it also has considerable pretensions.
Around The Bend
Cert: cert15
