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World Traveler
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // January 21, 2003
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"World Traveler" is an example of a potentially interesting plot done terribly. The film expects us to go on a journey with an irresponsible, mean-spirited man who walks out on his wife, son and life to go travel across the country. That character would be Cal (Billy Crudup), an upper-class (by the looks of his apartment), who gives a look to the camera early in the picture before hopping into his car, without a goodbye for his wife or son.
Off he drives, meeting people, but not really making any friends. He meets a construction worker who's an alcholic who he pushes into hitting the bar again. Cal even has a nasty drinking habit himself, along with the fact that he cheats on his wife with women on the road. There's a few other people he meets along the way (including Julianne Moore - wife of the director - who plays a shrill, hard-drinking mother looking for her lost son), none of them particularly interesting or not familiar stereotypes.
What's utterly irritating about "World Traveler" is that it's about absolutely nothing, but it thinks that its taking the audience on a deep, complex journey of soul-searching. Cal's a jerk and an alcoholic - he meets a lot of thinly written characters - a few of whom were or are drinkers, themselves. He ditches one, meets another. This is an almost totally aimless picture, with a nice helping of depressing and dull on top. Lots of dreamy, slow-motion shots of Cal driving across America only serve to extend the already SLOW 105-minute running time.
The film certainly does have a wonderful cast, all nearly wasted on this dreary material. Crudup, who is one of my favorite actors (see "Almost Famous", "Waking the Dead" or "Jesus' Son"), does about as well as he can with a completely unlikable and unsympathetic character. I doubt any actor could have done much with the character as written. Moore's character is a total nutcase; the resulting performance is an almost infinite distance from what the actress is capable of. James LeGros's supporting performance as a former classmate of Cal's (one of the few people who realizes what a jerk this guy is) is one of the film's few highlights. David Keith also has a minor supporting role as Cal's father.
"World Traveler" is a step down after the director's 1997 debut, "The Myth of Fingerprints", which was an ordinary family drama that really didn't stand out in any way. There's a great story about someone trying to make sense of their lives while wandering around middle America. Parts of Jack Nicholson's recent "About Schmidt" showed that. This film offers us no insights, no interesting characters and lots of stretches of open nothingness. If all this wasn't bad enough, the ending's nothing short of horrendous - not only is it a total cheat, but it adds nothing to a film that has shown no character development in the 100 minutes prior. Oh, and I almost forgot the dream sequence at the end, where Crudup's character flies over the countryside, while the people he'd met (and hurt in some way or another) over his journey wave at him. Terrible.
"World Traveler" is almost a total miss, taking a potentially interesting idea and coming up with a film that rambles for 105 minutes, getting progressively worse as it goes along. Even two of my favorite actors - Moore and Crudup - are only barely able to keep the material from failing completely.
The DVD
VIDEO: "World Traveler" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. While the film is unnecessarily dreary for the most part, there are occasional postcard-perfect shots and nicely composed scenes. The picture quality is rather inconsistent, though: sharpness and detail are exceptional throughout bright, daylight scenes and so-so in dimly-lit sequences.
Other than the occasional soft-looking image, there isn't too much to complain about here. The print used is in fine condition, aside from a speck or two. Edge enhancement remains at a minimum, slight amounts occasionally appearing for brief moments, but never really causing much of a distraction. No pixelation or other faults were noticed. The film's natural, slightly subdued color palette was nicely rendered, with colors exhibiting no smearing or other faults.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Aside from a few stray sound effects, the surrounds remained silent. The remainder of the soundtrack was dialogue-focused and suffered from no faults.
EXTRAS: The DVD includes a commentary by actress Moore, director Bart Freudlich and cinematographer Terry Stacey. As much as I respect the talents and opinions of Moore, I had no desire to watch this film again, so the commentary was skipped. A couple of trailers and a deleted scene round out the supplements.
Final Thoughts: I found "World Traveler" a complete and utter disappointment in nearly every regard. If it wasn't for a set of lead actors who try to work with the material, the film would be a total loss. Columbia/Tristar's DVD edition offers fine audio/video quality and a few extras, but I wouldn't even recommend a rental of the film.
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