The Art of Travel

Cinequest 2008

I liked The Art of Travel, a lot. I can’t say I loved it, and it wasn’t fantastic, but everyone around me agreed: we still liked it, a lot.

Christopher Masterson plays a 19 year old who dumps his fiancee at the altar (why was he getting married at 19 anyway???) and decides to go find himself by having a wild adventure from Nicaragua all through South America. I didn’t really buy the appeal of the first adventure he embarked on: Let’s hack our way through the South American jungle all day, every day, for over a year. And I absolutely disagreed with the decision he makes towards the end of the film. But that didn’t make this a bad film – a movie is a piece of art just as much as a painting or a piece of literature. We don’t have to agree with it, but it’s good to see different ideas. And honestly, I sat there in the theater thinking: Why can’t they just put these kinds of movies in theaters?? I would much rather watch this than most of the crap they’ve been putting in theaters. Making every movie end (or follow a plot) in a way that most viewers want to see is what makes most movies these days mind-boggling boring. I love these film festival movies that make you think along with entertaining you.

And old friend and his wife sat with me in the theater. The wife couldn’t figure out what to grade the movie, a 3 or a 4. She marked down 3 just as Jim said 4. So I put 4 on mine to even it out. I really felt it was more of a 3.5. It’s a movie you wouldn’t be sorry you paid money to see, that’s for sure.

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