Director: Jim Cummings
Talent: Jim Cummings
Release Date: May 31
Officer Jim (Jim Cummings) is giving a eulogy at his mother’s funeral. Over the course of this eulogy, Jim breaks downs completely. There’s this wonderful line in the midst of all the chaos how, after looking back and considering all the shitty things he said and did to his mother, these moments replay later in life ‘…it gets to you when you grow up, it eats you alive…’. I’m sure this line resonates for many. This meltdown is the picture of a man ill-equipped to deal with his emotions, the repercussions of which will cause further problems later on.
But the film expands outward from this introduction. Officer Jim is off work for a week to deal with the bereavement. We discover he is also going through a tough divorce and fighting for custody of his daughter Crystal. From here much of the film is anchored around him trying to be a good father to his daughter, who has a somewhat caustic mother, bending the ear of his friend and confidant Nate and repairing his mom’s old dance studio. Once back at work, though a capable officer, he’s always teetering on edge, capable of succumbing to an overload of emotion at any moment.
Cummings is also the writer and director of Thunder Road and he’s done a magnificent job on all fronts. The portrait of Officer Jim is brilliantly and at times unbearably humanistic. What sprouts from the astonishing opening scene is a wonderful tragicomedy with just the right amount of balance and unpredictability.
Words: Shane O’Reilly
