Michael Angarano’s “Sacramento” is a comedy/drama that initially comes across like a filmed play until it turns into a self-indulgent actor’s exercise.
Rickey (Angarano) is an insufferable man-child who has grown apart from his best friend, Glenn (Michael Cera). He’s stunned to see Rickey just show up at his home after considerable time apart.
While Rickey has been floating through life and tries to insert himself as an authority during group therapy sessions, Glenn is struggling to keep himself together as the stress of a baby on the way is taking a toll on him.
Glenn’s supportive but fed-up and very pregnant wife (Kristen Stewart) gives Glenn her blessing to join Rickey on a road trip to Sacramento, where he plans to spread the ashes of a dead relative.
Angarano, who stars, directs and co-wrote the screenplay with actor Chris Smith, shapes this into a road movie. That only shows how far the subgenre has fallen (even “Due Date” and “Kodachrome” were much funnier than this).
The big twist is easy to guess immediately, and it often feels like a sitcom without a laugh track.
The timing of the film’s arrival is unfortunate for Angarano. “Sacramento” is awfully similar to a recent and far superior comedy/drama that recently garnered Kieren Culkin an Oscar; if “A Real Pain” could create its own genre, it’s this movie.
However, “A Real Pain” was soulful and never as needy as this film. Both films are about an old, hard to like friend that tests the limits of a long-suffering best friend as they travel together. Unlike Culkin’s character in “A Real Pain,” I wasn’t happy to be stuck with Angarano’s Rickey.
Cera’s performance is much stronger, as his Glenn is better defined (I liked the nice character detail where Glenn wakes up in a single mom’s apartment after a long night and immediately cleans it for her). Otherwise, both Glenn and Rickey are annoying.
Instead of creating a potent, odd-couple pairing, they cancel each other out.
Stewart picks the perfect tone for her scenes, which appear to have been filmed in a single day. Rosalind Chao, a jewel of an actress (she should have been an Oscar contender for “The Joy Luck Club”) is sadly wasted in an early bit.
There’s a slow-motion montage of Glenn and Rickey wrestling while drunk which must have seemed funny while they shot it. The whole thing becomes like its main character – initially interesting, then an endurance tester.
Cera’s fanbase will be more forgiving, but this is a long way from his strongest vehicles (look no further than “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” or “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”).
“Sacramento” loses all credibility in the third act. The story takes a wildly improbable turn, assumes we’d find it darkly comic (dark yes, comic, hell no) and hopes both we and the onscreen characters would forgive a deal-breaking act of child abduction(!).
It’s at that point that “Sacramento” goes from being overly mild to downright awful.
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I like that Angarano has intended to make a film that emphasizes compassion for those down on their luck. Finding empathy for those we have “outgrown” is the core of what “Sacramento” is about but, to quote the late, great Roger Ebert, the problem with this movie isn’t what it’s about, but how I just wanted these characters to grow up already.
I believe that keeping in touch with old friends and maintaining meaningful friendships is a necessity, but there’s also an awareness of boundaries and time to consider. These characters do not care about any of that.
Their shenanigans are hard to watch.
A typically glib line of dialog sums up my feelings for the entire film. After Rickey gives another yet another feel-good statement (an example – “anger is just sadness with nowhere to go”) and pleads for forgiveness, a character responds, “I’m sorry, I don’t care.”
Yep, me too.
One and a half stars (out of four)
The post Road Trip Comedy ‘Sacramento’ Runs Out of Gas appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
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