SHERMAN’S WAY
Directed by Craig Saavedra
Produced by Tom Nance, Craig Saavedra & Michael Shulman
Written by Tom Nance
Released by International Film Circuit
USA. 98 min. Not Rated
With James LeGros, Michael Shulman, Enrico Colantoni, Brooke Nevin & Donna Murphy
 

In movies, road trips mean freedom. Whether it’s spring break or a break with the past, what begins as a momentary rebuttal of daily routines evolves into a new approach to life in less than two hours of screen time. From Old Joy to, well, Road Trip, hope keeps springing eternal—often with a character’s first orgy in a frat house—and that’s why we watch these movies.

That’s also why a filmmaker has to work harder to make it interesting. We’ve seen it before. Thelma and Louise did it in 1991. Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. So what does Sherman have to show us in 2009?

The movie starts off with separate introductions to Palmer (James LeGros), a deadbeat dad looking for money to buy a car for his son, and Sherman (Michael Shulman), a rich New York City kid whose mother coddles him, whose girlfriend dumps him, and whose lifeless humor is insufferable even to passersby. Pull out your road trip movie cheat sheet, and you know what’s going to happen: Palmer gets his car; Sherman rejects his mother’s pampering, meets a new girl, and becomes less unbearable.

But this is a road trip movie. Like life, the joy is the journey—right? Sure, but not here. The humor is hollow, and the characters are shallow. Everyone’s characterizations are textbook. Sherman is buttoned-up, closed off, and doesn’t understand why people don’t like him when he talks about how difficult it is to be so wealthy, which makes Addy (Brooke Nevin) the ideal choice to reform him. It doesn’t take her long through skinny-dipping, frank flirting, and a tendency to philosophize out loud.

Of course, Palmer plays a part in helping Sherman lighten up, too. He also has some lessons to learn when he finds Sherman stranded in California wine country just where Palmer’s been hotwiring cars. While the dork needs to loosen up, the drifter needs to settle down. Unfortunately, neither Palmer nor Addy have their own story arcs, and neither learns anything by the end of the movie. They’re archetypal gurus that Sherman meets along the road of life, and our mission during this movie’s running time is to wait for him to take their teachings and learn to be less lame.

Even the road trip comedy National Lampoon’s Van Wilder had to innovate hundreds of ways to showcase breasts. No one is innovating anything here. At least that road trip with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman had Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Zachary Jones
March 6, 2009