Screenwriting seems fraught with challenges and knotty realities. I’ve grown to appreciate this more in recent days as I’ve made my own meager attempts at undertaking this craft. One particular challenge, it seems, is the ability to write something realistically, or at least truthfully, so that it seems natural, organic, and true to life. So much screenwriting today seems formulaic as if the writer was merely attempting to connect dots to move characters from here to there with little actual concern for what the character would, in fact, do or say at any given moment. Now, on one hand, it’s ridiculous to assert that a fictional character could do or say anything without the writer writing it that way. While practically this is true enough, you feel differently on this point when a character does something that serves the screenwriter in moving the story along, but in your mind you think, “Really? . . . Would he really do that?”
I say all of this in preface to my review of Trucker to highlight why I think it a unique film. Certainly, the storyline itself isn’t particularly revelatory (i.e., purposefully distant parent is forced to reexamine her heart and attitudes when long-lost child is thrust back into her life); yet screenwriter James Mottern has crafted his story in such a way that the characters (especially reluctant mother Diane Ford played by Michelle Monaghan) do, say, and exist as real people do, say, and exist. Mr. Mottern gives his characters space and freedom to make choices, stumble about, and find (or lose) their way.
Does this mean that, finally, here is a film that lacked predictability? Yes, I think it did as far as the individual choices the characters made from one point to the next are concerned. I found myself continually intrigued by decisions or statements made by the characters (likely because they were, at least outwardly, quite the opposite of what I would do or say). Yet, I always knew where the story was headed. At first this frustrated me because I felt I had “seen it all before.” And while it’s true that the plot covers well-traveled cinematic ground, I couldn’t shake my curiosity over the small moments in the journey. I give much credit to Michelle Monaghan who embodies an amazing blend of confidence, brokenness, and desperate need. This film succeeds because she bears her soul scene after scene, but covers it brilliantly with a thin coat of truck grease attitude.
Trucker may have adequate lensing, an uninspired soundtrack, and a predictable over-arching plot, but if you enjoy character studies or simply real people being, um . . . real, then you may want to hitch a ride with this film. At the very least, Michelle Monaghan’s performance deserves to be seen. I also suspect that along the way you’ll find a bit of yourself in the corners of these characters’ lives and you may just be touched.
