Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Jan 21, 2007

Review: RV

Filed in Reviews

I rented the Robin Williams movie “RV” not really expecting to enjoy it. Boy was I wrong.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve laughed my sides sore at a movie. Based on the saccharine beginning, with daughter Cassy telling her daddy that she never wants to grow up because she doesn’t want to leave him behind, I was expecting a sappy family story, too sugary, maybe a few weak laughs. When we fast-forwarded a few years to Cassy as a teenager going through the “whatever” stage, I found that it was an uproariously funny farce.

Overwhelmed workaholic Bob Munro isn’t in it for the money: he’s desperate to keep his family in the style to which they’ve become accustomed. Under pressure from younger men at work, his obnoxious germophobe boss threatens to fire him if he doesn’t cancel the family vacation to Hawaii so that he can help secure the merger of Alpine Soda and a smaller, independent company in Colorado. Rather than tell his wife the truth, Bob goes right out and rents an RV. The first inkling that something is up is when daughter Cassie calls, “Mom! Some idiot just parked a great big RV outside our house!”

Reluctantly, the family is persuaded to come along. With Bob needing to generate enough enthusiasm for four people, they get on the road, knocking over most of their wall in the process. There is a great deal of RV-inflicted death and destruction to inanimate objects. Each day they discover the wonders of RV life: the dump station, RV parks that are no more than a patch of desert with a blinking neon cactus, the “interesting” neighbors. When Bob can hide away he works on his presentation, but he can’t get a connection to the internet. When his laptop is stolen, he has to start over using his Blackberry. The scenes of him climbing all over Utah landscaping to try to get a cellular signal are wonderful.

Along the way the family falls in with the Gornickes. Friendly, gushing and more than a little eclectic, at first this family seem like redneck weirdoes. Each scene, however, reveals a little more of what they truly are…and it’s not what you’d expect, either. They pick up the hitch hiker who’s stolen Bob’s laptop, and while they try to return it, the Munros, thinking they’re being stalked, run away screaming.

I think that the reason this movie is so funny is that its gags are eminently visual. They’re over the top, but each one serves a purpose and isn’t there “just because.” There is visual irony in bounds. You don’t need to be told that an RV balanced on the point of a hill too steep for something 40′ long is funny. You don’t need to be told that overtaking a 12 mph tractor with a 20 mph vehicle is funny. And the dump station scene is beyond compare.

The emotions are real and the characters learn from their mistakes and make some progress. I could relate to the Munros, drifting apart because somewhere along the lines they’ve forgotten why they are a family at all. The characters are quirky and real (well, maybe not the Gornickes…but you just never know.) They are not just there to provide the funnies. And that, I think, is why this movie works so very well. Even though you can pretty much guess what’s going to happen at the end…you find yourself caring.