For those who need to slow down with a peaceful story and no surprises.
Direction: Andrew Ahn Cast: Lucas Jaye, Hong Chau, Brian Dennehy Original title: Driveways Country: United States Year: 2019 Release date: 04-30-2021 Genre: Drama Script: Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen Photography: Ki Jin Kim Synopsis : Cody, an introverted 8-year-old boy, travels with his mother to the small town where his aunt lived to clean and sell the house after her death. As Kathy discovers how little she knew about her sister, Cody develops an unexpected friendship with Del, a widowed Korean War veteran who lives next door to her. Over the course of a summer and with Del’s support, Cody develops the courage to come out of his shell and find, with his mother, a new place to call home.
The best: being able to say goodbye to Brian Dennehy in such an emotional role.
The worst: that, deep down, the story it tells is very small.
Family series of the 90s (almost) always included a chapter in which, thanks to one of the young members of the cast, we learned to look favorably on some venerable neighbor initially presented as a threat. Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, scriptwriters of Cody’s Summer, intend to make that secondary idea the main plot of a film that, in the absence of conflict, at least does not drag on.
Andrew Ahn, in his second job as a filmmaker and the first to come to our rooms, conducts calmly, aware that the important thing is the natural interpretation of Hong Chau and Lucas Jaye, responsible for embodying a mother and son who, with the excuse to clean the house of a deceased relative to put it up for sale, they will find in that new neighborhood a possible place to settle. It doesn’t take long for Brian Dennehy to win over audiences with an endearing performance – and little Cody thanks to the absolute lack of problems between them – allowing us to enjoy their not-too-explored friendship story until, when the time comes, it’s over.
