Written and directed by the unknown Brad Isaacs, "Have Dreams, Will Travel" is one of many films that failed to appear in several countries. It's one of those treasures that we find dusty and hidden on the shelves of video stores (the ones that still exist) or that we find lost in some streaming or anywhere on the internet. A drama that has a well-structured "beginning, middle and end", which makes the viewer comfortable with the beautiful story told, in just over 80 minutes. There is not an excessively extended plot, the film is concisely told and manages to move and involve us in this kind of "road movie" in which our protagonists are.
Ben (Cayden Boyd) is the one who narrates his own life story. About to turn 13, he already feels in a position to make an assessment of everything he has lived up to then and the balance is extremely negative. For starters, he claims that his father (Matthew Modine) and mother (Lara Flynn Boyle) should never have married, nor had a child. The boy who receives little attention from his parents was born from a chance meeting between a man who only thinks about taking care of his boat, even though he is in West Texas many kilometers from the sea, and a woman in love with Hollywood stars, so much so that, which everything indicates, cheats on her husband with types inspired by movie characters. Interestingly, her family ends up accepting the presence of Cassie (Anna Sophia Robb) at home, a girl who lost her parents in an accident that happened right in front of their restaurant. The two pre-teens dissatisfied with their lives decide to unite and run away in search of a life plan.
"In Search of Happiness" has several names. In the US, the film was distributed under the titles "A West Texas Children's Story" and "Have Dreams, Will Travel". What makes the most sense, really, is the first one. In addition to matching the melancholy tone of the story, which takes place in the 1960s. Ben and Cassie's relationship is passionate, beautiful. They start out as friends, but soon the relationship turns into something much stronger, more lasting and unbreakable. During the journey, the duo reinforces their union in a symbolic marriage and continues the crossing thanks to hitchhikers who help them get closer and closer to the house of Cassie's uncles, played by Heather Graham and Dylan McDermont (relatives of both the girl and the boy has no names mentioned), two somewhat atypical figures and without rigid standards of behavior, a relevant detail since everything indicates that the actions take place in the mid-1960s and in a countryside and traditionalist region. The simple premise could indeed yield a good film, albeit predictable, but the problem is that Isaacs took the meaning of the term road movie to the letter and really put his foot on the accelerator. From the beginning of the film, we already felt that the narrative flows in fits and starts, does not follow a cadence of emotions and wastes any commitment to developing the characters.
Ben is the narrator of the story and he is an adorable little boy. He has so much potential, but he feels suffocated in the midst of his parents' non-relationship and living in a small town in the interior of Texas with no prospect of growth. He still has that childhood innocence, but he yearns to become mature, he just doesn't know how. Chance of him shows up with Cassie. Cassi is the opposite of Ben. Cassie is too mature for her age and seems not to care about the loss of her parents and not even a weak justification given later on makes us sympathize with the girl's drama. The naivety that could exist in the act of the symbolic marriage between the two pre-adolescents also does not have a positive effect, as we do not feel that emotion of a child playing at being an adult, even if for each new individual that crosses their path a new little lie is told. There is no sweetness in the interpretations of the juvenile cast and as for the adults, unfortunately, there is not enough time for them to captivate the spectator. Many secondary characters challenge the script, some even adding nothing to the narrative, and so the talent of people like Val Kilmer are wasted in empty participation. Worse yet, none of these strangers pose any danger to minors, nor do they question why they are wandering the roads alone. They are like heavenly angels whose mission is to direct them to that plan of life, a term that becomes boring because it is repeated so often.
Great characters appear throughout the film and each one of them contributes to the positive balance of what we see in the sequels. The protagonist's parents, one adoring boat and the other addicted to Hollywood artists, are the main villains of the plot and impact the young son's desire for change. The feature moves with the subtlety that it adds to extremely painful situations, which could cause real emotional chaos in the heart of a child. The main character is endowed with a unique maturity and manages to get out of that distant relationship with his parents, going to seek his own freedom with the help of his new friend. The path is one of discoveries and that makes the production very nice and interesting.
The action in "Have Dreams, Will Travel" takes place in the 1960s and the film has that unique atmosphere of the time thanks to the color scheme used, costumes, props and sets. The props and symbols scattered throughout the film are American classics: Dr. Peppers, small towns, farms, the Hardy Boys series, country music and even the people Benjamin and Cassie meet on their road trip. Everything looks fresh out of a Norman Rockwell drawing (which likely influenced the movie). The story gets a little clichéd and naive at times, but that doesn't detract from the film's enjoyment thanks to the story's tasteful humor and warm smiles on screen. At times, the film appears to be a comedy, drama or road movie genre - although it is never quite one of them.
It is important to highlight that the film only works because its pair of child protagonists is wonderful. Cayden Boyd and AnnaSophia Robb are wonderful in their performances, judging by the irritation one feels towards Cassie when she starts using expressions and terms that not only confuse Benjamin, but you probably wish there was a dictionary for those she loved. Didn't care. For his part, Cayden Boyd is great portraying this innocent, warm Southern boy trying to figure out his life, his parents and now his new friend and girlfriend. At one point he tells her, "Will you always have that attitude? I just want to know".
Robb, who had already played an equally confident and fearless character in "Bridge to Terabithia", here again gives us an excellent performance, moving from the accident to the desire to carry out his plan, but which also shows emotionally fragile when memories of the past start to torment her more and more. In the end, "Have Dreams, Will Travel" is a pleasant coming-of-age tale, and the story manages to involve the viewer, even if at times it seems that parts of the story seem to be missing. It would have been better to have better developed the characters, explore their backstories a little more and also in the present. In the end, we are sure that some characters that go through the plot, although few, are misused. We miss more situations, challenges and experiences that helped in this journey of maturation. The feeling that the plot is a bit rushed is constant. We have the feeling that if the journey were worked more carefully, many other lessons could be learned by the protagonists, which would certainly enrich the experience for the spectator as well. The performance of the young actors is so good that it hooks us and makes us root for them throughout the film and it is what, in fact, elevates the work to another level and that makes it really worth watching this beautiful drama.
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