Cinema for Brunch HE WENT THAT WAY Review

Zachary Quinto and Jacob Elordi fail to find chemistry in the frustrating, incoherent road film “He Went That Way”.

Synopsis

Accompanied by his pet chimpanzee, a celebrity animal trainer picks up a hitchhiker, only to discover his passenger is a cunning young serial killer.

Review
The Road Movie. A film where a character – or group of characters – set sail on an adventure, go to visit an old friend, do a deed or just…go searching. Revelations are made, things are discovered, events in favor to the plot or character development happen. In general, there’s supposed to be some type of events that change the character(s) by the end of the film. Unfortunately, Jeffrey Darling 1960’s-set film “He Went That Way” is not even remotely that type of adventure. Jim Goodwin (Zachary Quinto), an animal trainer traveling with his star chimpanzee Spanky, picks up hitchhiker Bobby Falls (Jacob Elordi). Before long, Jim realizes that Bobby is a manic serial killer, prone to immediate fits, sudden bursts of violence and just an all-around sketchy dude. But there’s another side to Bobby, a side that’s almost childlike that comes out when he discovers Jim’s chimp Spanky and chooses to let Jim live and take him to his next destination up north. A promising premise, a fact-based premise (more on that later), a premise that promises what the “road movie” always does. A ride that changes its characters drastically and promises something, anything to happen.

“He Went That Way” fails in many ways of being a solid road movie, or even in being a solid film in general. The most glaring failure of this film rests within the failed chemistry of its talented leads. Jacob Elordi sells the manic, James Dean-as-psychopath energy that the role of Bobby Falls requires but it’s the dialogue and incoherent character traits that fail his performance. Bobby, based off real-life serial killer Larry Lee Ranes, has moments where flashbacks are shown of past murders he committed, people killed because he either felt disrespected or angered. These flashback placements are…fine but they don’t really show us motivation for this character or a reason as to why he is the way he is. He’s just crude, antsy and an all-around jerk without rhyme-or-reason. A contrasting example – Martin Sheen’s performance of Kit in Terrence Malick’s 1973 “Badlands”. A character that’s as dangerous as Elordi’s Bobby Falls but has a script and direction that doesn’t fail his bad guy performance. There’s depth to the madness and there’s an enigmatic danger to this character. It’s a shame Elordi’s performance isn’t given the same courtesy. Zachary Quinto plays the role of Jim Goodwin, based on animal trailer Dave Pitts (who has a pretty good “This is how it happened” segment during the credits). He approaches the role with a mostly nervous, somewhat cautious energy. For a role like this, that energy is reasonable but unfortunately, Quinto just seems out of place. It feels like Quinto is in a different film, a film about an older man acting as a mentor to a wayward young man. That would be a fine film to watch….if the wayward young man wasn’t a psychopathic killer! Save for a few scenes, there is awkward, forced chemistry between Elordi and Quinto that just doesn’t work – either Elordi doesn’t fit in certain scenes (or situations) or vice-versa for Quinto. It’s an unfortunate casting mess.

The biggest sin of “He Went That Way” however is the writing. Evan Wiener’s script feels like it’s scared, scared for a character to go to dark places or even cross the line. A scene to note is when Jim helps Bobby talk to some girls, using the chimp as an icebreaker. It starts out charming enough and eventually, Bobby, Jim and the young girls ends up back at a motel room for an innocent game of gin rummy. Jim steps out to make a call (desperately trying to find a gig for his novelty talent) while Bobby is left inside with the two girls. Things get tense and…nothing happens. If you’re going to show flashbacks of murder, flirt with danger again and again throughout the course of a film, eventually the audience is expecting you to go all the way. “He Went That Way” never fully does that – it mostly flirts with the possibility of something of value happening. To add insult to injury, there are incoherent tonal shifts – the film doesn’t want to decide if it wants to be a dark comedy, a true-crime thriller, a buddy road movie or all of the above. The film tries to shoot its shot with all of the above and fails miserably. Character motivations are made unclear and character traits are disposable by the minute. The film never makes clear what we are we to make of this…friendship, relationship, hostage situation?…we never quite know or are made clear what this pairing is or even the justification for its existence over a 95 minute runtime.

Closing Thoughts
When it’s all said and done, “He Went That Way” is an incoherent, frustrating mess of a film. Director Jeffrey Darling does what he can with the material, creating some great establishment shots in some scenes (anyone would be a fool to not make use of the natural lighting that is the “open road”) and highlighting solid production design in others. But the minimal required work is not enough to make this film the least bit enjoyable. Even a resolution that somewhat sticks the landing can’t even be done here – the film has three different endings stacked on top of each other where our characters part ways and reconnect, part ways and reconnect, rinse and repeat. It’s like screenwriter Evan Wiener didn’t quite know where the end the film (or this relationship) and just throws everything he has at the wall thinking it’ll make a complete whole. Add a strange punchline of a final shot to the mix and that is the jumbled mess that is “He Went That Way”, a sloppy, uninspired start to 2024 but hopefully not a deterrent for better, future projects for its core wasted talent.

Trailer

NOTE: This review was originally posted on the Elements of Madness website. You can read the original review here.