Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Great acting all around in this gritty indie drama, but especially from Michelle Monaghan who does a fantastic job as Diane Ford, a self-reliant trucker who is forced to give up her carefree lifestyle (of drunken one night stands) and take on the responsibility of caring for her 11-year-old son when his father ends up in the hospital.You really want her character to succeed here which helped move the story along because the plot wasn't all that original. However in saying that I've never seen the estranged child reuniting with wayward parent done in quite this way before either.All the characters here are damaged in one way or another and the story as a whole is somewhat heartbreaking. Nathan Fillion is always a treat to watch, he is just so likable and it was nice seeing him play a different sort of role. The boy who played the son was also kind of amazing. Benjamin Bratt was a surprise in a supporting role. Ultimately this made me want to hit the road. 03.13

Trucker is a very, very good film that's only let down in the end by its pitiful lack of plot. Sterling performances, believable human relationships and an engrossing look at the lower rungs of the American success ladder grab your interest and make you care about what happens in this story. Then with its conclusion, it's as if writer/director James Mottern decided to go out of his way to remind the audience that there was really no structure or direction or design to anything they just watched. Now, you don't have to have a great plot to have a great movie. Michelle Monaghan and Nathan Fillion are so wonderfully relaxed and human here that more of plot might have only gotten in the way. What you cannot do, however, with a motion picture that's all about experiencing the emotion of human struggle and the slap on a finish that's dependent on unsupported, arbitrary and ridiculous-in-the-light-of-day conflicts.Diane Ford (Michelle Monaghan) is a truck driver, cruising through a life of casual isolation from the world and alienation from herself. Her existence is made up of long hauls, random one night stands and then returning home to adolescently flirt with a married man (Nathan Fillion), but she doesn't seem all that unhappy with it. Then the son she abandoned 10 years ago (Jimmy Bennett) is dropped on her doorstep because his father (Benjamin Bratt) is dying of cancer and Diane's life has to get a lot less casual.You may have heard of Monaghan's performance here and it is every bit as good as people say. She beautifully inhabits Diane Ford. From her sexual ease to her inability to refer to her 11 year old son with something other than "dude" to her growing awareness that contentment in being alone is breaking down, this is some award worthy acting. Nathan Fillion is just as good as a man so enthralled with Diane that he can't imagine life without her, even though he's not actually with her. Benjamin Bratt is also powerful in the small but crucial role of the father and Jimmy Bennett as the boy…well, he's not one of these freakish child actors who blow you away on screen, but that's probably good for him and the talent he does have is good enough.And the awkward, difficult and ultimately rewarding relationships between these people carry Trucker along on a cloud of goodwill. You like these people, even when they're not trying to be likable, and that can take things a long way. These are the kind of characters where you actively want them to have a happy ending.What makes a very good film like this great are the obstacles put in the way of that happy ending and that's where Trucker breaks down on the side of the road. There are two interrelated issues that come to a head at the end of this story. Will Diane and her son stay together? Will Diane exchange her selfish and deleterious independence for some sense of belonging? With the first, there's never any question at all. I know there's supposed to be a suspension of disbelief, but you've got to be a massively credulous moron to think for a nanosecond that her son might wind up anywhere but with Diane. Monaghan and Bennett do everything they can to create and sustain some doubt, but Writer/director Mottern's plot doesn't do anything to establish and build up any possible alternative to Diane and her son staying together. There's only one other potential destination and Mottern does nothing to make it seem even vaguely credible.With the second, it's first dealt with when Diane and her married "friend" finally acknowledge their love for each other. But first we're told they've been doing this dance for 4 years. Now, Diane's independence explains why they're not married or together in some other way. But why haven't they boinked in 4 years when from their first moment we see them together they're practically drooling over each other? Again, the plot doesn't do the work to justify their chastity. And then there's the big moment at the end where Diane is confronted with the consequences of her aimless and self-centered ways. Well, aside from not matching the tone and feel of the rest of Trucker, that big moment turns on a character who hasn't been heard from or seen on screen for over an hour doing something that not only make no sense in general, it doesn't fit anything previously set up about the character or his agenda. When the big moment happened, I wasn't even sure it was the same character at first because his reappearance and actions are so out of the blue. Again, if that's how things were going to conclude, the plot needed to do a lot more work foreshadowing or at least rationalizing it.With a plot that competently introduced, sustained and exacerbating a series of conflicts to lead to a satisfying ending, Trucker would have been a great motion picture. Without one, this is still very, very good and more than worth your time and trouble. Give it a look.

This movie was made on a very modest budget, reportedly $2Million which by today's standards is chump change. One of the producers is Michelle Monaghan who also has the lead role as a trucker with a young son she deserted when he was only one. I suppose this was a work of passion for Monaghan and it comes across that way. It is a character study, and it works sometimes, at other times it comes across as trite.Michelle Monaghan is Diane Ford, and as the movie opens we see her having aimless sex on the road. When the young man offers to exchange phone numbers, or email addresses, she just looks at him with disbelief and leaves. That is how her life is, and has been.Jimmy Bennett who was the poor little brother in "Orphan" is Peter, almost an orphan in this story. When Diane left 10 years earlier, he was cared for by Benjamin Bratt as his dad Leonard Bonner. Leonard and Diane had met up when she was 18, she got pregnant quickly, found she could not be a "wife in a house" and that was when she left. But now Leonard is dying of cancer so Peter needs a new home.We wonder, will it work out with Diane, who only sees him as an obstacle? At least at first.I had some difficulty concentrating on this movie. I ended up watching it in pieces on 3 separate occasions. There was one, and only one, moment that made me really care, and really see a point in the story. Peter was asleep on Diane's couch when she came in. She looked at him for a few seconds, then went in closer, she smelled his head, then she put her nose close to his nose to smell his breath. It was the type of instinctive thing a mother might do, especially one like Diane who was more like an untamed animal. It showed she was finally beginning to care about him.

I was able to see this film at the Austin Film Festival 2008. Saw it twice actually, since Natnan Fillion's number one fan wasn't able to go the night I had it on my calendar. Despite problems with the script (didn't always ring true) and definitely with the dialogue (again, problems with truth, and reality), Nathan, Michelle, and Jimmy give fine performances. Dialogue weakness, I would guess, would be a tough thing for an actor to overcome, but Nathan sails through it with flying colors. I would have liked to have asked the director why he chose sepia tones for some of the scenes - they simply didn't fit with the message/action on screen. I'd ask, but he'd probably not answer, like in the Q&A at the Sunday evening screening. (What, me bitter? No.) If I had to guess, I'd say that the director makes some rookie errors since this was his first narrative; and, it appears he was more interested in being an "artiste" rather than telling the audience a story. Overall though, I enjoyed the picture, particularly Nathan Fillion, Michelle Monaghan and Jimmy Bennett.