Review of At Any Price (2012) by Sol C — 09 Mar 2014

I had a mixed reaction to the film. It needed a major rewrite. They had a great idea for a movie here, but they didn't execute it correctly. It feels like 2 stories are going on here, the Dennis Quaid one and the racing one with Zac Efron and they don't successfully come together here, in my opinion. Dennis's story was more interesting and fascinating than Zac's. One big problem here is that a lot of character were not developed well.

One major theme here is the relationship between fathers and sons. That is seen a lot in Dennis Quaid films (example: Frequency, The Rookie). He also did the father and daughter theme with movies like In Good Company and Soul Surfer. This film reminded me of movies like Promised Land, Mosquito Coast, Days of Thunder, In the Bedroom, A History of Violence to name a few.

Dennis Quaid is excellent here. I haven't seen him play a character like this before. Zac's character, in my opinion, wasn't developed well. He does have a great on screen chemistry with Dennis. I thought Zac was better in other films. Heather Graham, Kim Dickens, and Clancy Brown also do a good job in their supporting roles.

Despite the flaws, I say, see it for Dennis Quaid's performance in it.