From her Oscar-nominated, frenetic, stressed-out life as a therapist in If I had legs I’d Kick You to the car-housed victim of an excessive towing bill in Tow, Rose Byrne excels as a heroic middle-aged woman on the verge fighting a system that ignores her needs. In Tow, she takes charge, and everyone can learn from her zeal.
Like many of us, she has weaknesses that color her heroism, for instance her alcoholism. Yet even with that, she goes to extraordinary measures to get her car back, erase her debt, and return to her daughter. Along the way, she engages a young lawyer, Kevin Eggers (Dominic Sessa) to help her and comes to terms with the head of a shelter, Barb (Octavia Spencer), all showing her innate ability to get along and pursue a goal.
In short, she’s a model of certitude working through a system that denies her a normal existence such as a bed and a job, while she works for those goals without reservation, begging, or coercing. She is a model citizen who survived Seattle’s slums to become a folk hero inspiring an actress to play a career-defining role.
Tow is modest filmmaking, unadorned, and filled with everyday life that entertains and inspires. With superb acting, too.
Tow
Director:Stephanie Laing (Family Squares)
Screenplay: Jonathan Keasey (Parallel), Brant Bolvin
Cast: Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You).
Length: 1h 45s
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio.Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com