+5
I'm glad there is so much discussion on Rudderless. I really connected with the movie and as I said at the VERY BEGINNING of this thread, this is not a film that I think is amazing or a "Hall of Fame" material, just something I think more people should see.
Two other films that jump out at me that deal with similar parents of a school shooter situation; We Need To Talk About Kevin, which examines the before and after with a riveting performance from Tilda Swinton and a creepy and provocative performance from Ezra Miller. The second is a film I have not seen but stars Maria Bello and Michael Sheen as parents of a school shooter, called Beautiful Boy. Both of those films look/are more depressing than Rudderless and approach a similar topic with different themes and viewpoints.
As for the relationship between Yelchin and Crudup...who am I to deem what a grieving person is going through appropriate or not. He clearly wants nothing to do with the kid at the beginning, but the annoyance and pestering finally get to him to give it a try. His intentions are clear from the beginning, he uses his son's music as a cathartic release, while the band has no idea.
For a film that deals with such tragic events, it felt uplifting to me. We Need to Talk About Kevin is in no way ever uplifting. Does the film need to be uplifting? No, it doesn't, but it chooses to be. I agree the film has some faults (that damn boat guy, we can all agree on that) but overall, the film had more positives than negatives for me and like Thief, I really connected with the music. I have the soundtrack and listen to it often. My wife cried during this film, but she tends to cry at a lot of movies now that she is a mother of two.
A powerful moment in the film for me was when he went to see the memorial. He looks at all the names of those killed and his son's name isn't present. Should it be there? Absolutely not. But to him, his son was lost that day. It's such a conflicting scene of emotions. I think it was handled rather well and Crudup sold the performance for me as a grieving father lost in life. His wife has "moved on" as much as one can, but he can't and it took a young kid with similar talents to help him finally find his path.
Last edited by TheUsualSuspect; 01-22-21 at 08:56 AM.