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| Emile Hirsch (top) and Paul Rudd star in Prince Avalanche |
Enjoy the Silence: Probably Not
'Maybe they'll make a comic book of us some day,' ponders young Lance (Emile Hirsch.) Evidently, Lance didn't watch David Gordon Green's Prince Avalanche all the way through. Quite possibly the year's most boring movie, Prince Avalanche would have trouble competing with a comic book... at least for entertainment value. Two drab guys clearing long stretches of untraveled highways after woodland fires? Wake me when it's over.
IMDb Plot: Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind.
What’s Best: 30 minutes in, I had a pretty nice nap. Hmm, sleeping on the job can't qualify as a good recommendation, can it? The only thing going for Prince Avalanche is the familiarity of its co-stars Paul Rudd and Hirsch. Can you imagine this without those two? In between several references to "enjoying the silence," I got a slight kick out of the pair's quarrels over music, 'What about the Equal Time Agreement?' and Lance's troubles with love (see Best Line.)
What’s Not: Green directed Pineapple Express and six episodes of TV's Eastbound & Down: Where was that guy? Prince Avalanche harkens back to Green's roots in the Southern Gothic tradition (I had no idea what that was, but I'm guessing it's boring.) I can't think of a single reason why anyone would want to see a movie about nothing. What's next? A movie about a guy sitting in a chair, reading a book?
Best Line: Lance shows no mercy when trying to rationalize his 48-year-old girlfriend's pregnancy, 'She can't get pregnant: She's not fresh anymore. She's old.' Sounds like someone needs some time alone in the woods to get their thoughts straight...
Overall: Alvin (Rudd) loves being alone, just ask him. 'I could use the solo time,' 'Let's enjoy the silence,' and 'I reap the rewards of solitude.' Trouble is, without much going on, solitude is probably the only feeling you're going to get in an empty theater when/if you see this. Alvin's relationship with Lance's sister is the centerpiece of this drama, yet without seeing her (or more importantly, any interaction with Alvin) it's almost impossible to feel vested in its outcome.
Grade: D-
