“Last Ride” is a leisurely paced, moderately engaging
road-trip movie that focuses on the developing relationship between the two
central characters: country music great Hank Williams (persuasively played by
Henry Thomas) and inexperienced, small-town boy, Silas (Jesse James), who’s
hired as a driver for the ailing superstar during his final days of 1952. If
you’re a Hank Williams fan, you’ll probably enjoy this movie more although Hank
doesn’t sing nor does director Harry Thomason use his music in the soundtrack.
Silas (James) is hired to drive ‘Mr. Wells’ from Montgomery,
Ala., to stops in West Virginia and Ohio and get him there sober. Silas doesn’t
know who his passenger is nor is he equipped to see that Mr. Wells doesn’t
drink. Thomas wisely underplays a part that could easily fall into parody.
Ashen-faced, unsteady of step and given to violent bouts of coughing, he comes
across as a battered wreck, looking much older than his 29 years. James might
be young but he is more than adequate as the good-hearted foil who slowly gains
William’s respect and friendship. However, the acting doesn’t out weight the
weak story, which mainly takes place inside a blue Cadillac with two less than
interesting characters = one who’s mostly drunk or getting there and the other
with no back story and a perpetually worried expression. 6/6/12
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