Kodachrome

This is one of those movies where estranged family members try to reconcile over a road trip before one of them dies. Ed Harris is the one dying, Jason Sudekis plays his son, and Elizabeth Olsen plays Harris' nurse who is along for the trip to look after Harris.

Harris is a renowned photographer who was a lousy father and husband and continues to be one. Sudekis works for a record label but appears to be running out of time there because he can't get good bands? I think there's supposed to be a deeper reason, something about lacking the confidence to make people believe in him as a person to elevate their careers, but it kind of gets lost in the shuffle of his and Harris' snapping at each other, and everyone else telling Sudekis to give his dad a chance, and open up to him.

There is not a single surprising development in this entire film. If you've seen movies with this premise before, then you've seen this one. There's a romantic subplot between Olsen and Sudekis that feels entirely awkward, unearned, and just a bad idea in general.

I only watched for Ed Harris, who achieved the unusual goal of playing a character that's such an ass I didn't like him at all. I mean, I almost always root for Ed Harris, as long as he doesn't play a Nazi soldier (see, Enemy at the Gates). His character is so unlikable that I resent the movie for constantly implying that Sudekis should just put his issues aside and give his dad another chance. Every time he does, his dad verbally emasculates him. He's like Gary Cole's character in Talladega Nights. Every time things are going well, he deliberately goes and ruins things. What, he's owed forgiveness for decades of being a shitty person just because he's dying? To hell with that.