Prince Avalanche Review

10th Oct 2013

Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd play Lance and Alvin, who navigate through their forced familialrelationship and are surprised to find a meaningful friendship.

Set in Texas in 1988, in the year after forest fires ravaged Bastrop County, Lance is a stroppy teenager working for his brother-in-law Alvin, who takes his job seriously to the point of obsession. Alvin has chosen a job painting road markers in a ravaged and isolated landscape hoping to find an inner peace and to become a better partner to Lance’s sister.

Paul Rudd couldn’t be further away from his usual ‘comedy’ roles – yes that’s in inverted commas because let’s face it, he’s been in some truly terrible films. This is refreshing though, he’s clearly looking to move into something better and to choose a re-make of a deeply emotive Swedish film shows some depth. Emile Hirsch is absolutely engaging as a teenager who’s wide–eyed innocence plays perfectly against his desperate desire to get laid. Hirsch has got an impressive filmography behind him from Killer Joe to Milk and he runs rings around Rudd; his performance is word-perfect.

Overall, I was charmed by the film, but not moved and had it been a forty-minute short, I would have been firmly in its camp. However, despite the fact that I smiled throughout and chuckled at several points, when it was over it all seemed rather inconsequential. However, it does seem unfair to accuse it of something that it almost deliberately sets out to do.

I think at its core it’s about how fleeting every emotion is and how things we think run deep, really don’t. It’s about surprising yourself about how you really feel about things when something really challenges you, whether its your girlfriend finding someone new, finding out that you’re capable of being a dick or being confronted by a feckless teenager who turns out to be a better man than most.

I can see why it’s done well at festivals, it’s got these transcendent moments were it veers away from structure and plot and tried to relate something truly profound about the environment their in. Whether it’s the casting of Rudd, or just that it caught me at the wrong moment, I just didn’t quite buy into it entirely. If anything, it felt like a coming-of-age/buddy comedy with indie aspirations. But then it premiered at Sundance, so what do I know?