Review of Rudderless (2014) by Dawdlingpoet — 24 Nov 2021

I thought this was quite a good film, covering the theme of male (or parental) grief, although it is by no means overly sentimental or sweet, yet I did feel it was a bit touching at times.

I thought Billy Crudup did well in portraying the father, Sam, clearly struggling to figure out how to move forward after losing his son - the way he used his voice to speak the thoughts of his late son through the lyrics he discovers. Some of the songs were amusing or thoughtful and I enjoyed the scenes in which the songs were played in public - they were quite buzzing. Its quite a good film at making you think of how you can express yourself (or close relatives) through music.

To be critical, a part of me felt like perhaps more emphasis should, or could, have been put on Sams son, on learning more about his life but then I suppose its meant to be more about Sam than about his son. It is a good film, a decent music related drama but I didn't feel it was especially brilliant so as to deserve a 5 star rating. I can't quite put my finger on what didn't work for it not to get the higher rating, perhaps other than a lack of context maybe (and perhaps the ending was a little cheesy) but I did feel it was quite a good film regardless, so I'd recommend it on that basis.