At Any Price
Ramin Bahrani
This week’s other movie with fast and furious racing cars stars Zac Efron as Dean Whipple, a restless young man stuck in rural small-town America.
His father, Henry (Dennis Quaid), is a bitter seed salesman who favours his absent elder brother. This fuels Dean’s desire to get away. Car-racing offers a ticket out but when he chokes in an important competition, he gets overwhelmed by his frustrations.
The film takes an odd dark turn near the end and a terrible shared secret between father and son leads to an improvement in their relationship.
Efron cuts a dashing figure on the race track – no surprises in this department since he remains best known for breaking out as a teen idol on Disney’s High School Musical (2006).
But despite his golden-boy looks, his recent movie choices suggest he does not want to coast by on that alone. From the lurid The Paperboy (2012) to this family drama from writer-director Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, 2005), Efron seems to be seeking more challenging projects.
Kudos to him for showing some ambition but he needs a better vehicle than this ho-hum flick which never kicks into top gear.
(ST)