One Way to Valhalla (2009) User Reviews

OK. Not perfect, but....

[Gladys_Pym · 7/10 · 9 March 2012]

I'm conflicted.

I don't want to dis the plot summary - written by the writer/director - but it doesn't really give a taste of the film.

Bo is a bit of insufferable gear-head and his wife is seriously fed up with him.

He has a bicycle accident, caused - well - no spoilers, but its largely to do with him being an insufferable gear-head.

And then? And then everything changes. Or, rather, Bo does.

And his wife can't bear it. And continues not to. This is more than concussion, this is transcendent brain damage. I liked Bo after his accident. Respected him.

Not a perfect film, but a film about growth, and hope, and change. Albeit after a knock on the head, but, hey. You gotta start somewhere.

I'm left with warm feelings, escapist feelings, a sense of freedom, of hope.

Hey, that's not bad, is it? I had to suspend clinical disbelief, (I'm a psychotherapist), but I still came away optimistic, touched, moved. Which, quite frankly, isn't bad for a film which is real, gritty, and grounded well on the serious side of any sweet, fairytale line.

Karen Goodman writes well, and directs better. I really hope she goes (much) further.

PS check my other reviews. NO connections to the film at all.

Very impressed with Karen Goodman

[MBunge · 7/10 · 14 May 2012]

This is not the sort of film I usually like. Largely plot less, slice-of-life indy flicks tend to leave me cold, especially if they're wearing some sort of social message on their sleeve. Yet, while that is not at all an unfair description of One Way to Valhalla, I'm very glad I watched this movie. It's funny and smart and observant and made me felt as if I spent time with real people living real lives in the real world, just a bit out of kilter. I think it's because while the story suggests an agenda, writer/director Karen Goodman is completely uninterested in advancing it. What she is focused on is how one person's enlightenment is another person's tragedy and both can be equally true.

Bo Durant (Gabriel Macht) is a working class gear head with a beautiful muscle car that dominates his, and therefore his family's, life. It's what he spends on his money on. It's what he and his best friend (Brad William Henke) talk about. It's how he defines himself in the world. So when Bo gets picked up for speeding down the road with his eyes closed and his car is impounded, getting it back is the only thing he can think about. His long suffering wife Jenny (Kim Dickens) is glad to see it go, but not so glad when Bo gets into an accident while bicycling to work and suffers a head injury. That's because Bo stops being Bo. He stops caring about the car. He stops worrying about money. He no longer wants to continue his secret affair with Jenny's best friend and employer (Kate Walsh). He doesn't even want to eat anything. Bo just wants to hang around, experience existing and get closer to nature, something Jenny's hippie daughter (Alison Pill) finds inspiring. But has Bo achieved insight to become a better person or just brain damage to become an eventual burden on those around him?

What makes One Way to Valhalla so fascinating and amusing is how writer/director Goodman treats both possibilities with equal seriousness and humor. On the one hand, there's something very powerful about seeing a man of limited vision open himself up to a wider understanding of himself and the world. On the other hand, Bo's new way of thinking has left him barely able to protect or provide for himself or anyone else. On the gripping hand, Bo's wife and friends are alarmed at how the new Bo no longer fits into their old lives but Jenny's daughter sees his transformation through a lens of somewhat selfish validation. Goodman embraces all of that and more in this film about how people on the lower end of the economic ladder cling desperately to what they have and how disturbing it can be when they see someone give it all up.

While Gabriel Macht does a good job of playing Bo with a continuous core of identity, despite his mental defect/spiritual awakening, Kim Dickens is excellent at conveying the multi-faceted emotional relationship that Jenny has with her nearly grown and very different daughter. Kate Walsh is also quite nice at playing the most successful member of this social circle who is also the most personally screwed up.

One Way to Valhalla, though, is really all about the vision and voice of Karen Goodman. Without indulging in a lot of overly stylized bits of business, either visually or narratively, she takes the viewer by the hand and confidently leads them through a safari of life in part of early 21st century America. It feels as if Goodman herself knows what it's like to be in Bo or Jenny's place and is also capable of looking beyond it without belittling or denigrating their place in the sun. I tend to loathe films that just sort of stop, rather than coming to an end. Goodman does that here but she made me feel like it was an appropriate conclusion instead of a pretentious cop out because it was actually a perfect expression of the dual nature of the change in Bo. He is starting a new adventure but he's starting it as a guy with possible brain damage lost in the woods.

I can not only recommend people watch One Way to Valhalla, I can say it's made me interested in seeing other movies by Karen Goodman. What better praise can you give a filmmaker and her work?

A likable movie about likable but flawed characters

[peramneus · 8/10 · 9 February 2015]

This is a type of movie I usually don't appreciate. This is a drama movie. To be more precise, this is a kitchen sink drama movie. I don't like that. Especially, I usually don't like American drama movies. I think a lot of them are crap, idealizing the world and the characters into being either good or bad, and in the end the characters don't make any sense, simply because they are not believable.

This one is different. The characters in this movie are believable. They behave in a way people actually behave. Watching the movie is like sitting in a room filled with people who just cannot shut up. They (at least sometimes) try to do the right thing; sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't. Just like real people would do.

I like this movie a lot. It's not a masterpiece, but it is good. Moreover, it is something fresh and new, and I would like to see more from this director.