Kodachrome

Warning- Spoiler alert...

Photojournalist has days to live, invites estranged son for one last road trip, hilarity ensues... well, not quite. I honestly didn't know what to expect here, most all depictions of photographers on screen have been sadly lacking to say the least. This story line however is not as concerned with depicting a photographer, as it is the life long separation between father and son; and on the latter, it is to be commended. The movie does descend into a classic tearjerker, if only in its closing moments- but to be fair, there's really no other way to go down this road. 

The actual journey leaves little doubt that our aging, dying photographer (on his way to Kansas to personally hand deliver his last rolls of Kodachrome to the very last photo finishing lab that will develop them on their very last day) is not just a little rough and gruff around the edges- the guy's a full fledged, self admitted dick, and goes all out outta his way to prove he's a full fledged dick at that!

It's an uneven film to be sure, where on one hand you can get a rather brief but insightful, "impromptu" speech about the value of analog and photography as a whole, followed by that character's very credible breakdown and deathbed confession- only to have that almost undone by an eye roll inducing scene where fellow photographers/fans of Ed Harris's fictional PJ do their own version of a 21 gun salute by lining up as his body rolls past and pointing their cameras skyward while clicking their shutters- whoever thought up that painfully mawkish scenario should be banned from screen, film and human contact for the remainder of their natural lives... and then some. It made the fictional photographer's nod to... Steve McCurry (of all people), or the limitations of unexposed Kodachrome for that matter, seem inconsequential.

Ohhh... Almost forgot- props for not including the song (yeah, that one).