Sundance 2021 | "One for the Road" Is A Grand Toast to the Trials of Friendship
10/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars
Thai director Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya made elastic leaps and bounds with Bad Genius in 2017, a thriller about hijacking standardized test answers on an international scale. His latest, One for the Road—a major treat for attendees of the Sundance Film Festival’s opening night—is simultaneously more personal and more sprawling, and revealing in ways that Bad Genius, with its focus on suspense, was not. The focus of One for the Road is relationships – particularly, the one shared between long-time brothers-in-bars Boss (Thanapob Leeratanakajorn) and Aood (Ice Natara). The latter of the two has been stricken with cancer, and at the beginning of the film he enlists his friend to take him on a panoramic drive across Thailand so he can use the time he has left to say some parting words to his old flames.
But what starts as a buddy road trip dramedy with a Last Holiday-style premise does not stick to its expected course. Poonpiriya unravels and unravels layer upon layer of Boss and Aood’s shared memory lane, capturing what feels like their entire twenties as they navigate family, responsibility, and, of course, the flames I mentioned earlier. The romantic affairs of these men are where their paths both connect and diverge. Naturally, much of this film’s DNA is spun as the two navigate their lives and their women in this double helix formation.
Inspired by Poonpiriya’s personal experiences and aided by the mentorship of seasoned art house legend Wong Kar-wai (who serves as producer), One for the Road is a monumental ballad to friendship, painted in broad strokes across multiple cities and stages of life. Rose-coloured lenses keep the film glistening with hues of nostalgia that you’ll want to live in long after the credit roll, and snappy soundtrack choices and character moments prove that the best parts of the road trip are always the stops along the way. Because the film is so enraptured with memory, the sentimentality is poured on heavy, and the Almodovar-style melodrama comes in high-cresting waves. These choices may prove sappy to audiences more accustomed to, say, Wong Kar-wai’s subtler evocations, but they service the film’s buoyant tone well, and they should make for wide appeal on the international market. They also work hand-in-hand with some of Poonpiriya’s editing choices—no doubt inspired by his music video experience—to keep the almost two-and-a-half-hour runtime consistently dynamic.
The acting from the two leads, though a little stilted at first, seems to get better as the film goes along and the actors start to “settle” into their roles. Supporting work from the female actors, meanwhile, is consistently memorable, Violette Wautier as Prim, in particular, giving a performance that may evoke in you your every lost chance at love. Poonpiriya spoke in his Q&A following the film about how he encouraged improvisation amongst all of his actors in order to develop the chemistry at the heart of the film. This chemistry is a little lost when buried under the film’s heavy-handed pandering, admittedly, but it is a joy to behold when it shines through. And there is credit due to the inflated, sugary approach – like the cocktails featured in the film, One for the Road would not succeed without a heavy dose of simple syrup.
