Ride the Eagle

This American comedy, made in pandemic-time, is based on a screen lay co-written by first-time Australian director (and co-producer) of the film, Trent O’Donnell.

Leif (Johnson) and his mother, Honey (Sarandon), didn’t get on at all well while she was alive, and she has now passed away with cancer. Leif is a musician without much purpose in life, and his mother was a free-spirited bohemian hippie, who was not particularly devoted to him. After she dies, Honey leaves a wishlist which sets out what she wants her son to do. She makes her list a condition of Leif being able to inherit whatever she has left behind, which includes her Yosemite cabin home, that she has stashed with marijuana. The real reason for Honey’s list, however, is that she wants to make amends for the way she has treated her son while she was alive. The arrangement has many oddities. His mother’s mountain cabin is fabulous, but inheriting it is entirely conditional, and there is no way of ascertaining whether Leif has successfully completed the tasks that Honey has set.

Leif has been estranged from his mother ever since she abandoned him at 12 years of age, when she joined a new-age cult in the mountains to ‘express’ herself better. Leif failed to respond to Honey’s efforts to reach out as the years have gone by – she phoned him, but he never called back. She leaves her wishes on a video cassette that Leif finds and plays. On tape, Honey sets out what she wants of Leif, and he gets nothing unless he satisfies ‘all’ her wishes.

The film’s plot is original. Honey second guesses Leif’s reactions to her tape. Leif learns to communicate better with his mother, and he reacts more positively to her, as the tape plays on. One request is to row a boat across a lake and sneak into a house to drop off a note to a person important to Honey – a jealous lover, who doesn’t know Honey is dead, and who wants to share his experiences with Leif. Another is for Leif to catch a fish for dinner, using only his bare hands. The most problematic request is to renew contact with a former girlfriend, Audrey (D’Arcy Carden), who he broke up with, eight years before. As the list progresses, the tasks Honey sets Leif force him to reassess his relationship with his mother, but also push him to re-evaluate his own life. The tape puts Leif on a path to self-discovery, and signifies Honey’s love for him that he has never felt.

This film is a low-key, insightful, introspective comedy about making human connections and finding comfort in the companionship of others, and is intended to provide entertaining solace for some of the tensions of COVID time. The film is scripted smartly and wittily, and its photography of Californian lakes, trees and mountains is scenic. The film stirs memory of experiences that are enjoyable to recall, to experience, to empathise with, and to relive. Sarandon brings a spirited enthusiasm to her messaging, and looks to greatly enjoy the film’s main conceit. Honey has a special relationship to her son that never really gets resolved, and she is aware of that. The characters in the movie who dramatically resonate best on screen are Audrey, the jilted girlfriend, who could still be interested in Leif, and Honey’s ex-lover, Carl (J. K. Simmons), who has several revealing stories to tell Leif about his amorous, and not-so-friendly, interactions with his mother.

The film has an intimate tone that Trent O’Donnell cleverly mixes with comic moments. This is a joyful comedy about a man whose inheritance has conditions that demonstrate his mother’s love. Paradoxically, the main characters in the film almost never appear on screen at the same time. But someone important to Honey is always in Leif’s company – it is Nora, Honey’s ex-guide dog, who is devoted to Leif in a way Honey, while alive, hoped she could be, but never was.