It’s fairly common for nonfiction articles to be adapted for the screen, particularly when they detail events of extreme daring or heroism. But “Kodachrome,” adapted by Jonathan Tropper, directed by Mark Raso, takes for its source material a short, poignant 2010 profile by A.G. Sulzberger in the New York Times about the people flocking from around the world to develop their Kodachrome film at the last remaining processor, Dwayne’s Photo in Kansas, before they shut down.
Around this premise, rich with possibility for plumbing themes of memory, nostalgia, art and family, is looped a very standard, color-by-numbers road movie, featuring a son, Mark (Jason Sudeikis), and his estranged, dying father, Ben (Ed Harris), on a road trip from New York to Kansas to process the final few rolls of film before the shop closes, and before Ben dies of cancer. Along for the ride is Ben’s comely nurse, Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen), to administer his shots and provide some flirtatious intrigue for Mark.
Ben is a difficult genius, a storied, legendary photographer, brusque and tough. In his diminished state he’s all prickly exterior, defensive and belligerent. Mark, a former musician and struggling A&R man, is trying to get his career back on track. He only resentfully agrees to drive his father to Kansas with the promise of a meeting with a lucrative act in Chicago.
“Kodachrome” hits every beat you might expect from a film of this formula, and right when you expect it, too. They roll into town to visit some family members (Bruce Greenwood and Wendy Crewson) and run right into unresolved issues from their past. Mark and Zooey have their inevitable tequila-fueled romp (set to Live’s “Lightning Crashes,” no less), and things fall apart, and fall together, right on cue.
The journey is the structure upon which Topper hangs some pertinent conversations about art, music, what makes a career worth remembering and the nature of film and photography as it relates to life and memory. Ben is strictly analog, as he declares. He reveres Kodachrome, “projecting with light,” and looks down on what he deems “data” and “electronic dust.”
Although “Kodachrome” yearns to achieve some sense of poignancy and meaning, its storytelling and characters are so rote and predictable that it never takes hold. Sudeikis is saddled with playing the tired character archetype of the privileged, yet for some reason melancholic white man who gets away with being a creep and jerk for way too long.
It’s a shame that the filmmakers chose to adapt the article with such a stereotypical story when the article itself is rife with fresh possibilities — a railroad worker developing 1,500 rolls, or an artist from London who flew to Kansas to process and shoot her last rolls of film. There are so many opportunities to tell new stories, but once again, that is the road less taken, and the well-trodden “Kodachrome” just isn’t worth the trek.
MOVIE REVIEW
“Kodachrome”
Grade: D+
Starring Ed Harris, Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen and Dennis Haysbert. Directed by Mark Raso.
Unrated. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 40 minutes.
Bottom line: Film missed opportunities to tell great stories
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