Weldon is a reserved and somewhat grumpy plumber living a quiet life in rural New Brunswick. A few days after his father's funeral (in an opening scene, we are given a hint that he wasn't maybe liked much by his family), one night, he receives a phone call from the police in Toronto. His estranged brother, Perley, has been arrested for having sex with another man in a public park an the cops are willing to let this one slide if a family member picks him up. Due to the demands of his stubborn mother, Weldon drives down to Toronto to bail out his brother and bring him back to New Brunswick. Perley, a larger-than-life presence, hasn’t returned home for some time due to his recently deceased and abusive father. The siblings’ personalities clash as they are forced to reckon with the past on their ‘drive back home’. A lot of events happen on the trip prominently being one where Weldon tells a French speaking guy story from the past on how their abusive father almost killed Perley for being gay and was also responsible for him losing his hearing from one side. In another very important sequence, when Perley has the opportunity to have sex with a young stranger in a public washroom, the consequences are unimaginable. But eventually this event becomes the catharsis for the two brothers to reunite and understand each other in ways neither of them had expected.
Drive Back Home is not only a character study, as all great road movies are, of the two brothers, it is also an evocative dissection of the morals and repression of family life. As you would expect from a road trip, this film is also filled with scenes of arrest and imprisonment, car trouble, a quarrel and reconciliation and a daring rescue.The director authentically replicates a time full of hate and close-mindedness, where gay people were punished simply for existing. Alan Cumming plays Perley, a very complex character who is as funny as it is devastating. And the actor playing Weldon is also amazing. The chemistry that the two brothers share, how they both slowly warm up to each other after years of estrangement is very well depicted. The background story from the childhood, the flashes of which, we are shown throughout, does come as a shocker and how it impacts a young man and his brother is to be seen now that they have both grown up. And the chance to tryst in a small town bar washroom with a handsome stranger didn't come along every day, and was an erotic opportunity that couldn't be passed up even with the knowledge that it would likely lead to violence. It was necessity not a sexual addiction. The film does an astounding job of creating the feel of the '70s, the vicious ignorance of the majority mindset, and even evokes the desperation and repression within which we lived. On a constructive note, the film could have done better with some pacing issues and tighter editing. Road trip films are not everyone's cup of tea, but. Thanks to majorly the performances in this film, I think most audience members will appreciate the essence of a timely reflection on being true to oneself. (7/10)
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