Harris dazzling as cantankerous dad in ‘Kodachrome’
“Kodachrome” teams Ed Harris and Jason Sudeikis as a long-estranged father and son and quickly, comfortably sets up their (contrived) forced reunion.
Dad’s days are numbered as he succumbs to cancer, but his one final wish — a road trip to Kansas — requires his son’s participation.
Benjamin Ryder is the dad, a legendary worldclass photographer — and, as is soon apparent, a real SOB. His son Matt, who hasn’t communicated with his father in a decade, is never going to be famous.
In fact, as “Kodachrome” begins, Matt’s career as a record label executive has been dealt a deadly blow. He’s about to be fired when he impulsively lies and says he can woo a rising band away from their label to work with him.
Then that life-changing call comes via Zooey (Elizabeth Olsen), his father’s nurse/caretaker, who explains that Ben has four rolls of Kodak film from decades earlier and, meticulous and “analog” as he is, he wants them developed the old-fashioned way.
Only Kodak, giving way to digital, is closing its last office in Kansas. Ben’s wish is that Matt drive him there before it closes forever and print these pictures.
Along the way, as Ben’s appalling behavior and
malevolent mouth alienate anyone and every one, “Kodachrome” sees the trio visit his married daughter (a luminous Wendy Crewson), husband (Bruce Greenwood) and Chicago, where Matt can meet the band that could save his career.
What “Kodachrome” makes clear is that if you’re going to do a father-son saga, Harris is essential.
One of our most esteemed actors — currently onstage in New York with wife Amy Madigan — Harris at 67 is obviously in better physical shape than anyone else in this movie.
That he convincingly suggests a terminally ill and miserably cantankerous celebrity is a given. What he gives “Kodachrome” in just a few key scenes is heartbreaking sorrow and a regretful humanity. Equally impressive is how easily he captures Ben’s puzzling contradictions as determined in Jonathan Tropper’s screenplay.
“SNL” vet Sudeikis gives Matt his pain and also his dignity. His romance with Zooey however seems beyond cornball.