They say speaking to yourself is the first sign of madness, which is something I've never put much stock in as I frequently do that. With the idiotic protagonist of the Kelvin Redvers written and directed Cold Road I have been forced to reconsider my stance as the moronic lead doesn't shut up once over the hundred minute movie, despite spending 99% of that time pretty much all alone.
Tracey (Roseanne Supernault) is an indigenous Canadian who is driving down a long and empty road up in the remote Canadian North in order to pay her respects to her terminally ill mother back in her childhood town. She unwittingly attracts the attention of a semi truck driver (played by both Chad Cosgrsve - The Last of Us TV show stunt work, and C. Blake Evernden), one who has a psychotic hatred for the indigenous people. As she desperately tries to cover the vast distance in a car low on fuel, she is endlessly pursued by the faceless driver who seems intent on running her off the road whatever the cost.
I was immediately reminded of the Stephen Spielberg classic PG horror film Duel with this one, and the similarities are extremely noticeable. It even has a midpoint break where the protagonist ends up in a diner wondering which of the diners is the mad driver, the same as that film. The main difference here is the location. Duel was set out in the American deserts while this is the complete opposite, taking place in heavy snow.
Tracey made for an insufferable main character, someone who is constantly shown as being dumb and who keeps making the most stupid mistakes. My favourite error has to be her filling her car up with petrol. Rather than actually pay attention to the act, she leaves the petrol nozzle in her car and then walks off to have a phone call with sister Eve (Taylor Kinequon), with her back to the car as another driver sneaks up and fills his car up with her petrol nozzle. Rather than notice her car is only half filled, she sees the price and assumes it has filled up. It is then a long long time before she notices how little petrol she has! I don't know about other people, but I am constantly keeping an eye on my petrol gauge, especially during long journeys. It seemed so unbelievable, a fabricated plot device to try and ramp up the tension.
She makes so many stupid decisions over the course of the movie, not helped by how whiny the character is. An early phone call with her husband reveals he doesn't appear to like her, and then a call with her sister I got the exact same impression, couldn't say I blamed them. Then there is her equally stupid dog with the ridiculous name of 'Pretzel'. The whole chase begins because the dog decides to go and sit in the middle of the road when let out for a rest stop, which then causes it to nearly be hit by the lorry driver. Rather than own her mistake of not watching the dog, Tracey becomes infuriated that the lorry driver didn't slow down or stop completely. Real main character energy coming from this irritating woman. That isn't to say the actress wasn't good, she did as fine a job as possible, but you could hear in her voice the unnaturalness of constantly having to talk to herself. The dog seemed to be there to act as a reason for Tracey speaking aloud so much, but it didn't work, no one speaks to themself that much, I came to long for the few moments of silence.
The whole chase part was at least a bit better. The lorry, covered in dirt, and able to get up to unnatural speeds had an intimidating look to it. Sure it was no Road Train, but it had energy enough that it felt more like the antagonist than the faceless driver inside it. Cribbing from the Duel textbook, the driver's gloved hands or legs were occasionally glimpsed, but the man and his motives remained mostly a mystery. The prologue scene did set him up to be someone potentially targeting indigenous people though. Some of the chases were fun, some of the chase sequences were a bit stupid. Going back to the apparent low intelligence of the protagonist, at one point she disguises her car by covering it in snow and smashing the break lights, but forgets a huge blinking light that conveniently is the only part of the vehicle she forgets to cover!
The climatic finale to this I will admit was better than the cliff dive sequence in Duel, going along a similar path but one that I found far more satisfying!
Cold Road suffered the most because of its unlikeable and ditzy protagonist. Her endless complaining and droning on didn't make her someone easy to root for, while the many mistakes and bad calls she makes were infuriating to watch. It somewhat redeemed itself at the end, but there were just a few too many bad decisions made around the plot and pacing to really say this is something to recommend.
SCORE:
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