This Is Martin Bonner takes a magnifying glass to everyday goodness and lingering pain, illuminating their contours and complexities but pulling away before the movie can ever burst into sentimental flame.
This Is Martin Bonner
Sometimes You Have to Lose Your Life in Order to Find It
2013 · 1h 23m · R
Drama
Directed by
Chad Hartigan
Overview
Martin Bonner has just moved to Nevada from the East Coast, leaving behind his two adult children and a life he spent more than two decades building. He's there working a new job as the volunteer coordinator for a non-profit organization that helps prisoners make the transition from incarceration to freedom. It's Martin's first job in two years and he's recently declared bankruptcy. At the same time, Travis Holloway, a prisoner in the program, is being released after serving twelve years. Sent back into the world with nothing, Travis also finds life in Reno difficult to adjust to, despite the help from his program sponsor, Steve Helms. The stories of Martin and Travis slowly converge, as the two men meet and find that they have much in common, not the least of which is an unspoken need for encouragement and support.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
This contemplative drama draws strength from day-to-day ordinariness and a terrific lead performance from Paul Eenhoorn, yet sadly falls short.
Mr. Eenhoorn (whose patient expressions here suggest a kindly priest) gives his character the shy charm of palpable decency.
Patience is privileged, nothing is forced, and by the end of this quietly devastating character study, the ordinary has become extraordinary.
By calling on his leads to underplay nearly every moment, Hartigan calls into question our deeply ingrained instinct, as moviegoers, to witness a steady parade of amped-up emotions.
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