Review of Road to Paloma (2014) by Panta O — 01 Aug 2014

This drama thriller is directed, produced, co-written by and starring Jason Momoa ( co-writers Jonathan Hirschbein & Robert Homer Mollohan). What a guy! You probably know him... Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa is an actor, model, director, writer, and producer now, but before this movie he was known for his role as Ronon Dex (2005-09) on Stargate: Atlantis (2004-09) and as Khal Drogo in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011). I know him as Conan from Conan the Barbarian (2011). In this directorial debut his co-star is his wife Lisa Bonet and his co-writer Robert Homer Mollohan as well as Sarah Shahi, Michael Raymond-James and Wes Studi.

The story is straight forward - after his mother is murdered, Wolf (Jason Momoa), a Native American, seeks vengeance and then flees from the law across the country with a friend. He visits his sister to collect his mother's ashes with an intention to spread them across his mother's favourite lake. But the FBI agent is catching up with him fast!

It is like a kind of Native American Easy Rider theme, which addresses the racial injustice in the today's American society. Charismatic characters could not add to the dramatics of the story, and the anger was never portrayed convincingly.

If you like moody atmospherics and very strong visuals this could be a perfect movie for you, but only if you can ignore some gaps in the storytelling which needed more attention to details and development of the characters and situations.