Just so...so bad

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Vincent(Robert Sheehan) is a young man with Tourettes Syndrome. The Road Within opens with Vincent in a church screaming obscenities while a priest is saying Mass. His father places him at a private facility where he is roomed with Alex(Dev Patel), who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder and is a germ freak who can never be touched. They are soon joined by Marie(Zoe Kravitz) who has Anorexia. Maria steals their doctor's car keys and thus begins a very different road trip. The three main actors are magnificent, with a natural chemistry. The story alternates between funny and heartbreaking with ease. The final scenes are a bit sentimental, but I still would recommend The Road Within for its' positive outlook on life.

I found this small movie on Netflix streaming, it apparently was released at several film festivals but never was in theaters.Robert Sheehan is Vincent and we are introduced to him at his mother's funeral. He says some very inappropriate things as the minister is speaking and we soon figure out he has Tourette's. His father, Robert Patrick as Robert, a politician running for office, appears to be at the end of his rope with Vincent and has arranged for him to placed in an institution for misfits.There he gets paired with Dev Patel as Alex, an OCD clean freak who strongly objects to having a roommate. And he is shown around by Zoë Kravitz as Marie who is rail thin and fighting Anorexia. The institution is run by Kyra Sedgwick as Dr. Mia Rose.Each of the three misfits need to resolve old issues and they get a chance as they are thrown into an unlikely road trip from the institution in Nevada to the Pacific Coast, where Vincent wants to carry his mother's ashes. He has a photo of her there and she seems the happiest to him.The road trip of course doesn't go smoothly, starting with their stealing Dr Rose's car but without money or an operating credit card. Their detour takes them through Yosemite National Park and the cinematographer dwelled nicely on scenes with Half Dome and the characters. They eventually work their way to Santa Cruz and in the process are able to learn how to gain some control over their respective issues.It is ironic for me, just 3 weeks ago I made my first visit to Santa Cruz for a mini-vacation and now I see it again in this movie!Not a great movie by any measure but very interesting if you like to see misfits trying to cope with ordinary life.

This movie is a cheering (and serious) tale about complicated people sharing a complicated trip to the ocean. The story rolls with a wonderful narrative balance and the result is very entertaining. At the end I wondered who wrote and directed it and found out it was another astonishing female writer/director of these latter Movie years (Gren Wells).Then I asked myself (probably influenced by the Psychoanalytical atmosphere of the movie) why I rated it 8 and not 10. And it was simply because it was too easy for me (as it probably will be for you) to see what was going to come. A small lack of originality however does not affect the overall result, that remains really good. Moreover the movie offers the chance to put a new word in our vocabulary: Abreaction. Maybe you never heard it before but it's easy to figure out its meaning: it's what the story is about.

So I just finished watching this film and I would first like to say, if you're looking for an exciting and riveting plot; you've come to the wrong place. However, if you prefer a story with incredibly compelling characters played by incredibly talented actors, than you definitely need to watch this movie. Robert Sheehan, who plays Vincent, does a remarkable job portraying someone with Tourette's without going overboard. Although some of what he says during his ticks are funny, you can tell that they also cause him agony and they is shown through his facial expressions and his tone of voice. Similarly, Dev Patel who plays Alex does another remarkable job of playing someone with OCD (at least in my opinion). Zoe Kravitz's character is both witty and carefree but also intensely tragic. I believe this movie has a good combination of feel good moments and moments where you truly empathize with the characters. Though the concept of a road trip plot is slightly overdone, the landscapes are beautiful and the three young actors have a way of keeping you interested and entertained the entire time. You find yourself wanting to know all of them on an even deeper level which I believe is quite telling of how compelling they are. There were moments that were difficult to watch and made me a bit emotional while there were also scenes where I laughed out loud. It really gives you a perspective on what it is like with a mental illness, especially as a teenager and the complications that they cause. Overall, not a perfect flick but Kravitz, Patel, and Sheehan are definitely worth checking this film out.