Thunder Road (15)****
Dir: Jim Cummings
With: Jim Cummings, Kendal Farr, Nican Robinson
Runtime: 92 minutes
MAKING comedy out of sorrow is tough work. The slightest slip in tone and it can all end in tears of the wrong kind. Jim Cummings, who writes, directs and stars in this tale of a good man falling apart, here takes his pitch-perfect short film of three years ago and bumps it up to feature length without losing any of its charm.
Cummings plays police officer Jim Arnaud, left. Jim has been asked to deliver the eulogy at his mother’s funeral. It is a dreadful time for him, yet his mother’s passing is just one of the burdens Jim has had to shoulder lately. How much can one man be expected to bear?
Thunder Road is as delicately performed as it is beautifully written, with the comedy coming along at just the right moments to lighten the gloom. A fearless Cummings continues to raise the stakes, though, resulting in a picture that packs a hefty emotional punch at the same time as it is laugh out loud funny. Like the singer of the titular song, Cummings proves himself the boss.
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