Written by: Jackie van Beek
Starring: David Elliot, Jodie Hillock, Gloria Popata, Chelsie Preston Crayford
Rating: [2/5]
Life-altering events have a way of making individuals rethink their lives and the way they have lived it. Facts get faced and emotions run high directly in the aftermath. The Inland Road seeks to dive through this emotional turmoil and attacks through a beautifully visual lens, but when looking at the narrative as a whole, it leaves much to be desired.
Running away from home, teenager Tia (Gloria Popata) gets involved in a car crash, she moves in with Will (David Elliot) and Donna (Chelsie Preston Crayford). Will feels indebted to the teen for her involvement and has no problem with her staying with them, but trouble begins to brew at home, causing issues with his wife.
New Zealand, as a nation, has greatly benefitted from the way films have captured its incredible natural beauty. Pretty much all films that seek to focus on it display the sheer richness of the surroundings and how easily one can feel transported through an experience with films set there. This film certainly utilizes it to its advantage, but unfortunately, it’s the only area where it does find any success.
Visually, everything about this film looks striking and meditative in the way it explores Tia’s experience within the backdrop of New Zealand. It invites us to soak in this experience as Tia works through this difficult moment in her life. At times, the film holds the background surrounding her as she navigates each instance and tries to decide what lies next for her as she now lives with individuals who were strangers not too long ago. She already does not have the best of luck with her interpersonal relationships given she has run away from home, meaning she must ultimately decide what lies next for her and if she can go much longer relying on the generosity of others.
From Tia’s perspective, she has much going on but when she enters the familial dynamic of Will, Donna, and Lily (Georgia Spillane). As things initially go well, attrition will naturally come into play, especially when something as impactful as deep grief initially bonds individuals who never had a connection before. We particularly see this transpire with Donna with her pregnancy and how she begins to feel discomfort with this entire circumstance and that some decisions will need to get made. The Inland Road sets all of this up but it meanders in its plotting and how it navigates this whole situation. I can understand what director Jackie van Beek sought to accomplish in making this more moody but it never makes for all that captivating meditation on grief.
As her directorial debut, Jackie van Beek certainly displays her particular visual flare and how she accomplished something engrossing in a sense when looking at how this all looks but the story she co-wrote never had the necessary mustard. It comes as a surprise given her very next film, The Breaker Upperers where she completely blew me away with the comedy chops she has both in front and behind the camera. She very much matches the task for that particular genre, but in this attempt to be a bit more serious and look at grief through this particular lens just did not do it for me and made it not an enjoyable watch by any means. As with any directorial debut, it gives the opportunity to try to find their voice and their upcoming trajectory and perhaps with this feature not necessarily succeeding, it displayed perhaps comedy suited her much better and I would agree.
Quite difficult to get through despite having the best of intentions, The Inland Road does not display the best by director Jackie van Beek as her story on collective grief meanders far too much and dances around for the purposes of being meditative. While this worked with regard to the visuals and the lush New Zealand landscape in the background, it did not combine well with a story that lacked much of anything to keep us engaged and locked in throughout. Just not enough there across the board and we can see what occasionally happens with directorial debuts but it worked out just fine for van Beek in my estimation she gave us something much better with her very next film.
Films with Josh 
