PRINCE AVALANCHE
US, 2013, 94 minutes, Colour.
Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch.
Directed by David Gordon Green.
Do you know or have you ever met one of those road workers who put in the posts along the side of the road and paint the yellow lines down the middle? Here is your chance.
It is the aftermath of huge forest fires in Texas in 1987. The next year, along the road, forests and charred tree-trunks, two workers, Alvin and Lance, work all day and camp by themselves at night. If they were heroes of the comics that they like, then combined the would be Prince Alvin and Lance, Prince Avalanche.
The film is an American adaptation of an Icelandic film, Either Way, and is basically a two-hander, the interactions between Alvin and Lance. An amiable truckie who enjoys stopping to chat and have a drink and a woman who has lost her home in the fires and spends time, rummaging in the ashes and rubble trying to find her pilot’s license and log book are really the only two other people in the film.
Alvin’s girlfriend is Lance’s sister and Alvin has hired Lance so that he can get some sense and discipline in his untidy life. Alvin is not having too much success as Lance can be quite dumb and is, of course, sex-preoccupied. On the other hand, Alvin is a straight arrow, more introverted, more than a touch obsessive. He works hard, is trying to learn German by tape, finds it difficult to talk (he says he is not a fun guy), and is constantly critical of Lance. When asked by Lance if he were a girl in a beauty pageant, what would be his talent, he answers, the three-jump. When Lance’s sister breaks it all off, Alvin is distraught, becomes dysfunctional (with some help from the truckie’s alcohol). He fights with lance, but does come to his senses and apologizes.
Written and directed by David Gordon Green, (Undertow and the crass Your Highness), the film is humorous, witty with some astute observations. Emile Hirsch is a convincingly awkward as Lance, though he has, ultimately, a good heart. Paul Rudd, shorter hair and with a mustache, rather unrecognizable, offers a very different performance from his recent films and is very good indeed.
1. An amusing and interesting film? An American adaptation of an Icelandic film?
2. The vivid opening images of the forest fires? The burned-out aftermath? The Texas forests and roads? The ruined houses?
3. The jaunty musical score and the irony of the singing of Bad Connections? For the title, Lance and Alvin, their comic adventures - heroes, the combination of their names, Prince Avalanche?
4. The working situation, the roads, the posts, the yellow lines, the machinery, the truck, camping out, food, shelter? The men who do this work? Working in the day, resting at night? Alone in remote areas, lonely? Sexual frustration, especially for Lance? Alvin and his devotion to Madison? The situation suiting Alvin, but not Lance?
5. The film as a two-hander? Emile Hirsch as dumb? Paul Rudd as uptight and obsessive? Their appearance, the uniforms, way of speaking, their vocabulary, and lack of it, ideas, principles?
6. See Alvin diligently at work, Lance being lackadaisical? Their running amok at the end?
7. The truckie, stopping, talking, friendly, asking the calculations about their painting, the drink? His return visits? The woman in the truck and his denying
it?
8. Alvin and the weekend off, camping, wandering, finding the woman in the ruins of the house, her being kindly, the search for her license, log book? Later the suggestion that she was a ghost?
9. Lance, his size and height, Madison and his critique of her, going to town, not posting the letter, his sexual preoccupations, wanting music instead of the German lessons, not understanding situations, reading Madison’s letter, Alvin destroying his watch and his taking the money for a new one? Taunted by Alvin, going on strike, giving him the finger, the chase, Alvin’s fall, the rescue? Decision to go to the beauty pageant? The revelation of the pregnancy of the 47 year old woman, his reaction, not wanting a baby? Listening to Alvin saying it was a miracle. Liking the idea better?
10. Alan and his love for Madison, the letters, wanting to be alone, for self assessment? Learning German? Work, his expectations of others? The meals, the tent? The weekend alone? Lying on the road? The meeting with the woman, the interactions with the truckie? His being upset at being rejected by Madison?
11. The tour-de-force presentation of Madison’s argument with Alvin, the camera focusing on the lanes, the road, the expanse?
12. The fight, chase, Alan thinking he could fly, jumping, his injuries? Stepping on Lance’s watch? The two talking, reconciling, the truckie coming, the drinking, making merry, and the erratic painting the roads?
13. The decision about the beauty pageant, Lance asking about Alvin’s talent: the three-jump?
14. Driving off, after throwing their equipment away, passing the men working in the forest, the children playing?
15. After destruction, new beginnings, re-birth?
