November 12, 2013 -- In a burned out forest on an unused road, two guys paint a center stripe on the road and install reflector poles on the sides of the road and talk about life. There are few other characters in this film, and not much happens, but these two guys grow on you a bit.

The two guys are Alvin (Paul Rudd of “This is the End”) and a younger man, Lance (Emile Hirsch of “Into the Wild”). Alvin likes to be alone and camps in the woods by himself when Lance goes to town. Lance gets lonely and hungers for female companionship and sex. He chafes under Alvin's straight laced ways and his controlling nature. Also, Alvin is his boss, and his mother's boyfriend.

There is an uneasy truce between the two men. Alvin thinks Lance is a slacker who will amount to nothing in life. Lance thinks Alvin is an insecure know-it-all who isn't nearly as smart as he thinks he is. It turns out that Lance is smarter and more decent than Alvin thinks he is. It also turns out that Alvin is smarter than Lance thinks he is, but Alvin's estimation of his own intelligence is a bit high, too.

Alvin and Lance both receive emotionally powerful news which knocks them out of their existing relationships. The introduction of a lot of booze, thanks to a strange old man who happens by (Lance LeGault of “Stuntmen”) causes a major emotional shift in the relationship between Alvin and Lance, including a scene with Alvin chasing Lance through the woods carrying a large wrench as a weapon.

They talk about their relationships with women in the awkward, uncomfortable, dissembling way that men discuss matters of the heart and finally come to terms with each other. Early in the film, the two men existed in a very uneasy truce. At the end, they are finally at peace with each other. The remarkable thing is, there is nothing remarkable about these two men at all, which makes them an unlikely subject for an American film. This is more like a European film.

Another person who appears in the film is Joyce Payne, who plays a mysterious lady seen several times in the film, sometimes with an old truck driver, who steadfastly denies she is in the truck, even when she is. There is one poignant scene between Alvin, and the lady, who is combing through the ashes of the remains of her home trying to find what remains of her life.

As the lady gets into the truck with the crazy old truck driver, who denies she is in the truck. Alvin says to him something like, “If there was a lady in your truck, and I'm not saying there is, you'd be good to her, right? You'd make sure everything was all right?” The crazy old truck driver says, “You better believe it!”

At the end of the film, you get the feeling that these are all decent people who will treat everyone right, including each other. This is a slow moving film, and not much happens, but I liked the characters and the performances, which were all right on the money. Still, it is slow moving, so it isn't for everyone. But I liked it well enough to give it a mild thumbs up. It rates a C+.

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