RIDE THE EAGLE

US, 2021, 88 minutes, Colour.

Jake Johnston, D’Arcy Carden, Susan Sarandon, J.K.Simmons.

Directed by Trent O’Donnell.

An unusual film, made during the Covid epidemic, very few sequences where actors are together, rather ways found for communication between characters, phone calls, a bequest by video… It is a work of Australian writer-director, Trent O’Donnell, who worked with comedian actor, Jake Johnston for television and they have collaborated on this particular story.

It is a star vehicle for Jake Johnston who portrays a middle-aged man, Leif. He doesn’t exactly undergo a midlife crisis but rather is given the opportunity for a mid-life reassessment.

He has had something of an ambling life, playing in a band, skills in music and performance. He had been abandoned by his mother at the age of 12 when she had joined a cult. He has not had communication with her. Suddenly, his life is changed when a friend arrives with news that his mother has died and that she has left him her chalet – with some conditions.

The main drama/comedy of the film is his going to the chalet, looking at the video from his mother – who is played in her familiar style by Susan Sarandon. She offers him a particular bucket list which she thinks is important for him. He has to put a note on the pillow of a local, Carl, who reacts very badly, stalking Leif, covered in a hood, putting dead rabbits on the windscreen of his car, finally angrily confronting him. He has been Leif’s mother’s lover and suspected Leif as his replacement. That matter is resolved!

The film takes advantage of some of the local scenery where leaf has to go to kill his own food and goes fishing in a lake with mixed results. He has also to make a trek out into the mountains to find his mother’s ashes, read a declaration she has written and scatter the ashes in the lake. Also important is her injunction that he communicate with “one that got away” which means that some of the drama and comedy consists of his phone conversations with Audrey, with whom he had broken eight years earlier but who is still fond of him.

Mother congratulates her son from the video as he finishes his tasks. She is satisfied that he has tried whether you succeeded or not – and the chalet is his. D’Arcy Cardin, who also produced the film, bring some mischievous energy to Audrey.

Not particularly startling when you come to think of it, but Jake Johnston has a rather cheeky screen presence which has attractive moments. JK Simmons flashes angrily as Carl.

And the title, explained at the end, is a verse which indicates from his mother that Leif has ventured out, shown in a sketch, Riding the Eagle.

1. A film made during covid times and conditions? The writing, Jake Johnston and his performance, communication with other actors but not together on screen, except for J.K.Simmons, Missy, Gorky and the passing traveller in the woods? And the device of having Susan Sarandon on video? How effective?
2. Midlife crisis? Mid-life clarification? Leif, his hut, community, the band? The visit from his mother’s friend? The news about the bequest?
3. The use of location photography, Leif and his hut, the surroundings, homes? The contrast with the road, the open spaces? The beauty of Yosemite, mountains, tracks, lakes? The musical score?
4. Leif, his age, relationship with his mother, her abandon him when a child, her going to the cult? Lack of communication with her? His own life, relationships, memories of Audrey? Music, the band?
5. His travelling to his mother’s heart, a substantial building, comfortable? Her bucket list for him? His fighting the video, playing it, the revelation of her character, her past, her love for her son despite everything? The list, his returning to the video for each task? And her satisfaction at the end whatever his decisions?
6. The variety of tasks? His mother wanting to bring him out of himself? His going to Carl’s house, the note on the pillow? The consequence of Carl, hooded, stalking him, the dead rabbits on the car, Leif ringing the police, his desperate plea, Carl and the confrontation?
7. His mother wanting him to ring “the one that got away”? His telephoning Audrey, Audrey and her life, her personality, her reaction to Leif, listening, cooking, putting him off, phoning again? The happy banter and interactions, topics, sexuality, the past? His invitation for her to come? Her deciding it was too far for the drive and wondering about the consequences? The interaction illustrating that Leif could relate to people?
8. The music, the song, his friend Gorky, the band, Gorky ringing, their not wanting Leif in the band?
9. The request that Leif Hunt his own food, the humorous attempts at fishing and to get the fish?
10. The task to go on the trek, the map, the beauty of the countryside and his appreciating it, the information about the box, the ashes, to distribute them, to read out his mother’s bequest? And the irony of finding out they were knocked her ashes but that she was wanting him to acknowledge her?
11. The misunderstanding with Carl, his thinking that Leif was a lover, his anger, his absence, not knowing of Honey’s death, resolving misunderstanding?
12. A midlife reassessment of life?