Genre: Drama
Director: Donald Shebib
Stars: Doug McGrath, Kathleen Robertson, Anthony Lemke
***
It would be easy enough to dismiss Don Shebib’s sequel to his landmark 1970 “Canadian New Wave” classic Goin’ Down the Road as hogwash.
With most of its original living cast intact, this belated followup sees Pete (Doug McGrath), now a retired postie in Vancouver, charged with ushering the ashes of his old pal Joey (played in the original by the late Paul Bradley) all the way to the East Coast in the same battered car they put miles on in the first film.
If you think driving a 50-year-old heap across the country without hiccup is implausible, wait until you see the many maudlin plot twists that rise up along the route.
No matter, Road works, mainly because Shebib is honest and heartfelt about giving his heroes, living and dead, some closure in their lives. It’s a film that might make the cynic in you cringe, while the sentimentalist in you wipes away tears.
