Thunder Road started out as an an award-winning Sundance Short – a long take of a police officer delivering a darkly humorous eulogy for his late mother, culminating in him dancing and singing to the eponymous Bruce Springsteen song.
A few years later, the short has now grown into a full length feature film. The end result is a funny, tragic and very memorable little film – even if it’s a bit of a mess that doesn’t quite stick the landing.
The undisputed highlight of Thunder Road is writer, director and star Jim Cummings’ mesmerising performance as police officer Jim Arnaud. On top of trying to process the grief of his mother’s passing (the movie opens with the eulogy from the short), Jim is also in the middle of a divorce – and finds himself trying to reconnect with his 9-year old daughter Crystal (Kendal Farr).
Cummings has an uncanny ability to switch between moods on a dime and Thunder Road makes the absolute most of it. The eulogy is one of many long take scenes that simply linger on his performance as the character unsuccessfully tries to process or repress a complex range of emotions.
That mess of conflicting emotional states is the root of the movie’s comedy – the sudden switch from sobbing mess to forced composure, a moment of sincere gratitude unexpectedly interrupting an angry meltdown. The fact that the writing is just plain funny also helps a lot.
This could have easily felt like a cruel joke at the expense of an obviously troubled man, but it doesn’t. Thunder Road doesn’t punch down – instead , it’s bold enough to look for the humour in the tragedy of its main character. More often than not, it finds it.
Jim’s sadness is given an appropriate amount of weight and dramatic heft, so even though the audience is clearly invited to laugh at how pathetic and odd he can be, they’re also given plenty of reasons to feel for him. It’s a tricky balance of different tonal registers that Thunder Road pulls off quite well.
The story is a bit of a mess. There are narrative threads that don’t really go anywhere and there’s an overall episodic feel to the storytelling. You can tell that this is a movie that grew out of a smaller project.
Many additions expand on the original short in fascinating and memorable ways, but there are some that come across as just filling time. The ending is also abrupt – a sudden twist comes out of nowhere and things wrap up soon after.
In terms of pacing, Thunder Road stops just as the main character is at a turning point, so it ends up feeling like an emotional journey cut short – especially when the movie’s been so keen on just sitting with a character for long stretches at a time.
Still, it’s a film well worth seeing and a terrific showcase for the talents of its writer, director and star.
Thunder Road is distributed by Vertigo Releasing and comes out in the UK on May 31st, 2019.