I wanted to hate Last Stop for Paul from the get go. The frat boy aesthetic, the talk of “chicks”, the gonzo attitude, the beer, babes, and bong hits. I wanted to hate it. But I couldn’t. I was worn down by the understated charm of the premise and the absolutely true to life representation of things that seem to only happen to travelers. There’s that whole, “Okay, you’re not going to believe this, but…” attitude that permeates the movie. And I found that irresistible.
Forgive the diversion, but late in the movie I found myself remembering, in exquisite detail, a trip to Monteverde. We were off to visit friends that had bugged out for the year and moved to Costa Rica. They’d arranged for “some guy” to pick us up at the airport and, since we were going to see friends, we’d done NO homework. Night arrived. The van driver picked up a buddy in the dark. We wound up a dusty, barely paved track. The wind threw branches across our path, the headlights picked up the ribs of a skinny white horse crossing the road. We looked at each other, sidekick and I, wondering where the hell we were and where we were going. The driver turned off the laughable main road in to a hiking path buried in trees. Ah, I thought, this is it. I hope it’s brief, I hope it’s a gunshot to the head. Pity I don’t have much of value in my bag.
I am, of course, an idiot. Everyone knows that the road to Monteverde is a trial. Everyone but me, that is. Anyway, there’s a scene in the movie that brought all that back to me as though it had happened yesterday. And I was really grateful for that.
Here’s the premise of the film. Two dudes go on a grand tour to dispose of another dudes ashes. Along the way, stuff happens. Out of control stuff. There are hookers and drugs and crazy Irishmen and romance and elaborate lies and well, the kind of things that happen when you’re a dude traveling the world with bravado. There’s zero sensitivity towards native culture, nothing about sustainable travel, nothing enlightening about the trip. And let me say that as a sometimes travel writer, that Frommer’s thing made me CRAZY. (See the movie. No spoilers.) Except. Well, when the central character talks about why he travels, I have to smile and nod my head in complete and total agreement. And there’s the underlying sweetness of the best friend getting out of his cubicle bound life to take his friend’s ashes around the world.
The film’s a lot more Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas than Lost in Translation. It doesn’t exactly make you want to like the main characters or make you want to be them,even. But it did, for me, capture that sense of “anything can happen.” Of the maddening magic that travel brings to you when you give into the ultimate carpe diem mindset. Most of all, it made me want to hit the road. Big time.
A note from the producer:
Could you please point out that the movie is coming out theatrically this Fall and it is a “little movie” that will disappear if people don’t seek it out. Just like those great moments in travel.
Related
- Last Stop for Paul: Official Movie Site
- Part Travelogue, Part Girls Gone Wild: Review on The Perrin Post
- Baseball Logic: Review on Global Traveler
[tags]Last Stop for Paul, travel[/tags]
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