Kodachrome * * *

         I was amused that Matt, the lead character in this film, works in the popular music recording industry.  For in some ways the film reminded me of the play-safe, predictable, formulated stuff they come up with.  "Dude, never mind the originality we just need something to sell."

          Kodachrome has a "manufactured" feel about it - as opposed to created. No risks here. I'ts only creative element is it's attempt to smooth over the links of predictability, but they're still there.

"Where are we going?"
"Nowhere special".

          Matt, a man in his forties works as an A&R manager for a powerful record company (do such dinosaurs still exist?).  Things aren't working out real well for him and he's on the verge of losing his job. One day a young woman visits him. She is the nurse of his father who is dying. Estranged from his father he is not much interested, but a third person interferes and encourages him to take his father on a road trip to a photo lab in Kansas which is the last place on earth where they can still develop Kodachrome.  Matt's father Ben was once a famous Photo-Journalist and he has  four rolls of undeveloped Kodachrome film from thirty years ago.

        The road trip becomes the symbolic journey of  rehabilitating their father/son relationship, and as such it ticks all the boxes of excuses and regrets.
        In the end the contents of the Kodachrome film canisters  hold about as much surprise as most of the other scenes in this film. There is not an "Ah!", an "Oh!" or a sigh when we finally see the slides.  We just sit there thinking "Yeah, we knew that's what it would be. It was obvious from the start".
       There are some pretty good performance from Jason Sudekiks and Ed Harris as the father, though neither of them are particularly likable characters.  But we do have some sympathy for Elizabeth Olsen as the under-appreciated, somewhat abused nurse.  I just wish the story had a few more surprises and a few less contrived scenes. 

       Rather than an unpredictable road trip its more like looking down a tube toward a prescribed conclusion.  It's as safe and predictable as modern rock music coming from a main stream label.