Around the Bend


Around the Bend is a 2004 road movie written and directed by Jordan Roberts and starring Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly, and Jonah Bobo. The film received negative reviews.

Plot

The film is inspired by the relationship between Roberts and the absentee, criminally insane, substance-abusing father he barely knew, Robert Stone Jordan, a self-styled indie film director/producer in his later years. In the 1970s Bob Jordan toured with Leon Russell for a film project that he thoroughly bungled due to his drug-induced manic behavior. In the 1990s he produced and directed one of the first digitally captured film experiments based on the characters in Alice in Wonderland, often known as "Through the Looking Glass". His last known film project, "Meth" filmed in and around Palmdale/Lancaster CA involved a film "completion fund" scam where he ran off with the Sony Camera equipment loaned to him and the money he had collected from several investors. Upon returning to CA, he would die in 2001 awaiting a liver transplant, without ever contacting his sons. Christopher Walken bore an uncanny resemblance to Robert Jordan both in the physical and in his ability to appear menacing and unpredictable.

Cast

Critical reception

Around the Bend received negative reviews from critics, as the film holds a 29% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Around the Bend sets a destination of earnest generational drama, but settles for the most derivative route to get there, veering off course into trite sentimentality."

Awards