If you’re a human being who is estranged from your mother or father—especially if his or her health is failing—there are a lot of ways you might change the situation, ranging from therapy to murder. If you’re a character in a movie, however, there’s only one solution: ROAD TRIP! Only by being trapped in the tight confines of an automobile or motel with your least favorite family members, Hollywood tells us, can we do the hard work of rebuilding our relationships, despite the fact that road trips have undoubtedly ruined more families than they’ve saved.
This strange convention means that a screenwriter who is interested in family dynamics needs a reason to get a bunch of people who hate each other into the same vehicle, whether it’s a sales presentation, a beauty pageant, or just a bunch of crazy Nazis. In Kodachrome, the reason is rolls of undeveloped Kodachrome film.
The movie, from screenwriter Jonathan Tropper and director Mark Raso, is an adaptation of a 2010 article by New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger about Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas, the last facility to process Kodachrome (they stopped in 2010). It’s as good a reason as any for Jason Sudeikis, Ed Harris, and Elizabeth Olsen to hit the road together. Will Harris confront the wreckage he made of his family? Will Sudeikis confront his troubled past? Will Olsen come to know both men better? Probably! The only other outcome for this sort of setup is a Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-type situation, and judging from the trailer, that’s not on offer. On April 20, you can watch Kodachrome on Netflix with your estranged father—just don’t expect your relationship to improve unless you watch it while driving.
