Review: Ride

Helen Hunt, Brenton Thwaites in Ride

Ride was written and directed by Helen Hunt. In Ride, Helen Hunt plays the worst helicopter mom of all time to her college-age son Angelo (Brenton Thwaites). When he goes to California to spend the summer with his dad, she secretly follows him and watches his every move.

Spoilers ahead.

Luke Wilson, Helen Hunt and David Zayas

She gets around in California by hiring a limo day after day. The limo is driven by Ramon (David Zayas), who is wonderful. Ramon manages to be stoic and professional while attending to her crazy requests, phone calls from her NY office, ignorance of all things surfing, and insistence on sleeping outside her ex-husband’s house while her son is inside.

Helen Hunt and Luke Wilson

She decides to take up surfing. It’s probably the first thing in her life she can’t do well and she refuses to admit that she’s terrible for a long time. Finally she takes lessons from Ian (Luke Wilson) and becomes less horrible. She also has sex for the first time in years, smokes pot, and somehow manages to let go of her crazy.

Kudos to Helen Hunt for not being held back by the sexist culture in Hollywood and for making a beautiful, touching film.There’s a reason she’s the way she is, of course, but it’s revealed slowly in the film so I won’t explain it here. The film manages to be funny, charming and poignant while illuminating a crazy-acting mother’s hidden inner life.

In addition to the famous over-40 star who decided to take matters into her own hands and write a brilliant part for herself, the film also has a lot of women working behind the scenes. Kudos to Helen Hunt for not being held back by the sexist culture in Hollywood and for making a beautiful, touching film.

You can watch Ride on Netflix or Amazon Instant Video.

The Trailer

Images ©Screen Media Films

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