1st watched 12/31/2009 – 4 out of 10(Dir-Hans Petter Moland): Honest yet non-conclusive drama about the reconciliation of a separated family brought about by the dying wishes of a mother with cancer. This is a well acted movie and doesn't try to fluff up anything to make it look better than it is, but there was no real punch to affect the viewer. Basically, the story is about a daughter who accepts the mother's wish to bring her alcohol-addicted father to see her in the hospital. Her real hope is that the father and daughter will reconcile during the trip but this is a hard pill to swallow. The father stays drunk thru most of the trip and the daughter expectedly stays hard-nosed and her negative side is revealed thru their experiences. They meet up with a helpful truck driver whom the daughter eventually beds and learns to respect as he sticks around long enough to help them get to their destination. This side story is nice and there is the other issue as to whether the father and daughter are really biological father and daughter which adds some twists as well. All in all though, there is a lot of pain in this story that never really gets resolved --- so it's hard to like the movie. The makers really work hard to make you sympathize and to me this is very obvious. All in all, this is an OK movie but it didn't give you much to hold onto in it's entirety.
