Walking Up in Reno(2002) is something of a mixed bag and a film you will hate or love depending on who you are and perhaps where you have lived your whole life. I had actually never heard of this film when it was new but decided to check it out because of the cast of big name actors in the lead roles.

The film is set in modern day America in the deep south. Two married couples decide to take a road trip to Reno, Nevada for vacation but once they arrive things do not turn out as planned. The first of two couples are the Kirkendalls, Roy (Patrick Swayze) and Candy (Charlize Theron). Roy works for Candy's father who owns a cat food cannery while Candy is a stay at home wife who is trying to conceive a child with Roy. The Dodds, Lonnie (Billy Bob Thornton) and Darlene (Natasha Richardson), are in a similar setup with their life at home only except Lonnie owns the local Chevrolet dealership and is somewhat of a small time local celebrity with all of the television advertising he does. The story revolves around the interaction the characters have with each other over the course of a few days and the surfacing of a secret affair Lonnie and Candy have been having behind the backs of Roy and Darlene.

Most people dislike the film for the extremely linear plot and implied humor in southern stereotypes of people from the region being simple minded and just living in their own world without giving much thought to the “big picture”. For example, there is a hilarious scene in the film where Lonnie enters a contest to eat a 72 ounce steak within an hour to win the meal at no charge and get an 8x10 certificate of accomplishment. Such a thing is not rocket science or the discovery to cure cancer but in my opinion things like that make life interesting and you remember them twenty years later in life in a positive way. In any case, I liked the film greatly because of the character development in the script. This film is sort like the TV show Seinfeld for the south because you have the aggressive and in your face character of Lonnie, the passive and a bit dumb witted Roy, the slightly shallow but fundamentally of good morality Candy, and the submissive yet intelligent Darlene. We all know people who fit these types of personalities independent of geography or culture.

How the film makers assembled such a cast baffles the mind. In the DVD bonus footage they claim that Billy Bob Thornton singed on first and that attracted Charlize Theron to the project. Thornton is a natural at playing Lonnie because he has done very similar roles many times in his career. Theron has also played people from the south in her career but I like to compare her character in this film to when she played the successful young lawyer's wife in The Devil's Advocate (1997). I suppose how wealth and class play a role in shaping people who would have otherwise turned out so differently is highlighted in this film with Candy. Patrick Swayze is a legend for the 1989 film Roadhouse where he played a redneck bar bouncer who has a doctorate in philosophy. As Roy he is not nearly as interesting a character as he was twenty years ago but it was good to see him play an average person if you know what I mean. Without a doubt, the standout performance in this film was the one by Natasha Richardson. She did not do film after film in her career but the ones she is most remembered for have her playing sophisticated and cultured people. The 1998 remake of The Parent Trap is the film that comes to mind with Richardson. In this one not only is Darlene's accent on spot but the clothes and hair style they put on her looked like how people actually presented themselves back in the mid 1980s. Perhaps the film was trying to imply that Darlene was so passive and submissive that she stuck with how she presented herself as a teenager/young adult over a decade ago. There is a part of the film in which Darlene has a professional makeover done to explicitly make a break from her former self and live the old adage of “today is the first day of the rest of my life”.

Obviously, with such a powerhouse cast this was not a low budget film. Therefore, the sound, lighting, editing, sets, etc....are all top notch. It is a road movie and lives up to that classic plotting out on a road map and narration that goes along with the genre. They even had a scene where the travelers stop at a gas station to buy alcohol and food which is mundane thing to do but just adds authenticity to the whole thing. Look for Saturday Night Live veteran David Koechner in a bit role as a bell hop. This man just looks funny and delivers in the film. The biggest surprise of all is to see Penelope Cruz play a prostitute working one of the casinos in Reno. I highly recommend this film to anyone who can appreciate a good comedy without taking things so seriously that they find fault in satire. It would be great if more well known actors collaborated on similar films and gave us a break from their quest to win awards and make headlines.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age