Mark Reviews Movies: ALONG FOR THE RIDE (2022)

Along for the Ride, Netflix

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 5, 2022

There's little focus to the screenplay of Along for the Ride, writer/director Sofia Alvarez's adaptation of Sarah Dessen's novel. It's about a gimmick that doesn't amount to much in terms of insight, conflict, or stakes. It also depends upon some armchair psychoanalysis about divorce, overbearing or inattentive parents, and grief.

The main point, though, is that this story is a romance between two people who are empathetic enough to recognize the other has deeper problems. They are not, however, aware enough to actually talk about those problems in any meaningful way, until the screenplay requires it, or prevent those issues from getting in the way of their relationship, also because the script necessitates it for some conflict in the third act.

It's a messy bond, but that's not the problem here. That has to do with the fact that the movie doesn't let the relationship be convincingly messy, because it's too busy trying to do those other things and more.

Our protagonist is Auden (Emma Pasarow), who's getting ready to go to college but wants to spend the summer away from home. Auden wants to attempt to make some changes about herself, because others don't seem to like her too much.

She's a bit of an outsider, on account of how intelligent and opinionated and outspoken she is, and if there's any conflict from the start, it's in how we react to this character. Partly, she feels a bit too perfectly imperfect—in that way of job interviewee being asked to name a personal flaw, only to go on listing a bunch of strengths.

On the other hand, there's something a bit discomforting about how the movie does frame her strong opinions and willingness to vocalize them as a character defect. The lesson that a young woman had better keep some thoughts and ideas to herself if she wants to meet a cute, mysterious guy and get some cool friends doesn't sit quite right. Some of that, though, might be on account of Pasarow's visibly and audibly uncomfortable performance, which never creates any sense of substance to this character.

Anyway, Auden leaves home and her mother Victoria (Andie MacDowell), a surprisingly famous professor, to spend the summer at a beach town with her father Robert (Dermot Mulroney), a self-absorbed author, and his new wife Heidi (Kate Bosworth, a bubbly but genuine bright spot), who just gave birth to the couple's first child. Things don't get off to a good start, since her father is always busy and, after kissing the ex-boyfriend of the super-popular Maggie (Laura Kariuki), she gets off on the wrong foot with the locals. Worse, Maggie and her two friends, Leah (Genevieve Hannelius) and Esther (Samia Finnerty), are Auden's co-workers at her stepmother's shop.

After spending a lot of time setting up all of these complications, the movie eventually gets to the point. The gimmick here is that Auden has insomnia, so after waking up late and working until the evening, Auden finds herself buying some coffee and reading alone on the boardwalk in the middle of the night. There, she regularly spots Eli (Belmont Cameli), a quiet loner, riding his bike. After several nights of silently noticing each other, Eli takes her out on the town. He isn't just enigmatic and charming and handsome and talented, either. Eli actually wants to listen to Auden explain how and why she's so miserable.

The other gimmick—because the night owl thing barely matters—has Auden trying to live out the childhood she never had, so while she and Eli are playing miniature golf and participating in other youthful activities, they start falling for each other. Auden learns to be less serious and opinionated, and suddenly, Maggie starts to be friendlier with her. It's all so blandly pleasant that we're just waiting for the other shoes—of Auden's complicated relationships with her parents and Eli's guilt-stricken grief over the death of his best friend—to drop and put a momentary cloud over the moonlit nights of generic romance.

Everything here feels hasty and momentary—from that brief bit of unearned and unpersuasive conflict between the lovers, to the development of those friendships, to the underlying emotional issues that plague these characters and their potential for happiness. Along for the Ride is trying to do too much, but in the rush to add and resolve more and more problems for these characters, those issues and their resolutions never feel authentic.

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