November 20, 2019 – This is a warm-hearted, funny road movie with a Huck Finn-like quality to it. A prisoner escapes and ends up traveling down the river on a raft with an outlaw of sorts. Each learns something from the other along the way.

This movie has quirky, engaging characters and an interesting plot with a number of twists. The main character, Tyler (played by Shia LaBeouf of “Borg vs. McEnroe”) is angry with a couple of local fishermen, Duncan and Ratboy (John Hawkes of “Everest” and Yelawolf of “Ride Along” respectively) so he sets their equipment on fire. Duncan and Ratboy vow revenge.

Tyler takes off down the river in his boat with Duncan and Ratboy in hot pursuit. Tyler soon discovers he has a stowaway on board, Zak (played by Zack Gottsagen) who has escaped from a care facility where he was being held by the state because there was nobody willing to be responsible for him. Zak has Down Syndrome. Zak is being pursued by Eleanor (Dakota Johnson of the “Fifty Shades” movies). Eleanor was in charge of Zak's care, and is being held responsible for his escape.

Tyler doesn't want the responsibility of looking after Zak after leaving the boat behind, but it turns out they are headed in the same direction, south into Florida, and Zak and Tyler sort of hit it off and become friends during their journey together. Walking and rafting down the river, they run into a variety of other interesting characters, including blind preacher, Blind Jasper John (Wayne Dehart) who insists on baptizing them after shooting at them.

Eventually, Eleanor catches up with them, but she finds out that Zak is thriving in Tyler's company and he likes his freedom. He does not want to return to the group home with Eleanor. She ends up traveling with Tyler and Zak down the river. Their destination is a wrestling school in Florida run by wrestler The Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Haden Church of “We Bought a Zoo”). The Salt Water Redneck is Zak's hero, and he wants to be a professional wrestler.

The Salt Water Redneck, Zak, Tyler and Eleanor eventually meet up with Duncan and Ratboy in a real battle royal at a wrestling match where Zak gets to show off his surprising strength. While this plot is not believable, it is entertaining and satisfying.

I've seen Shia LaBeouf in a number of films, but I didn't recognize him at all in this one, maybe it was the beard. Dakota Johnson is effective as the woman who is trying to be the grown up in the group, while Zak is captivating as a man who is determined to follow his dream. Bruce Dern also turns a good performance as Zak's roommate. He engineers Zak's escape.

Writer-directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz have crafted a very pleasing movie that is funny, touching and somewhat uplifting. Too often, we forget there are a lot of good people in the world, and the bad people get too much of our attention. This is a movie that celebrates good people. There are so many stupid, bad comedies that movies like this should be celebrated. This film rates a B.

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