Prince Avalanche is all about friendship and a hint of hope

People can bond over all sorts of things, but the opposite is also true; it takes very little to break them apart. Sometimes the forces of nature are all that’s needed. Ever since people have had the luxury of living in cities with modern technology, there have been those who prefer to “rough it” or “live off the land,” although you can be sure they tend to maximize their chances of comfort (with the very rare exception of true extreme survivalists). These folks feel that there is a simplicity and purity to nature that cannot be found in the hustle and bustle of modern society, which has only gotten faster and more hectic as time goes by. But something that hasn’t changed is that life is complicated and difficult to manage for even the absurdly good looking (read: the actors in this movie). At the end, maybe you just want to get blackout drunk with a pal.

Prince Avalanche is the latest film from writer/director David Gordon Green, who has a weird track record, with his latest films the mediocre The Sitter, the boring unfunny Your Highness, and the mildly overrated stoner comedy Pineapple Express. But the guy got his start in indie movies, and this is totally one of those. Very loosely based on the Icelandic film Either Way, the movie takes place in the 1980s in Texas, where Alvin (Paul Rudd) is working on painting traffic lines on a highway decimated by destructive wildfires. Alvin is a city guy, but he fancies himself an outdoorsman, doing this sort of work to get away from it all (including his never seen but often mentioned girlfriend). Accompanying him on a sort of summer internship is Lance (Emile Hirsch), the younger brother of said girlfriend. Naturally it all starts with the two coming from very different worlds, the young Lance mainly concerned with getting laid and hooking up with his best friend’s girlfriend, while Alvin just loves the outdoors and wants to get the job done. Alvin thinks Lance is aimless and stupid, while Lance thinks Alvin is pretentious and boring. Typical sort of setup so far, and in fact the beginning of the film is very slow in building the tone. There’s a sleepy, extended quality to those first scenes, added onto by some weirdness with a weird truck driver wandering around (Lance Legault) and a woman that never speaks.

You can almost fall asleep in many of those wordless, calming scenes that showcase the intricacies of the street painting machine and the hidden depths of nature. But things become rapidly more interesting when the two actually start talking. Without spoiling anything, the two bond and argue and bond again through drama, pain, and drinking heavily. The charisma and rapport between these two carries the film, acting with easy, natural rhythms that draw you in effortlessly. The story is a simple one, but it serves the needs of the relationship of these two “people who don’t realize how similar they are.” Sure, it’s an oft-repeated theme in movies and literature, but that’s because when it works, it really works. There is a common thread of “lady problems”; both have experience in different areas of dealing with women, but they both also have serious weaknesses. Paul Rudd shows once again how versatile an actor he is, playing at times absurdly infantile, pedantically condescending, or empathetically avuncular. And Emile Hirsch pulls off the “troubled kid who thinks he’s smarter than he is” perfectly, showing that although the writing is important, the acting is crucial.

The script here is decent enough, but it would’ve floundered if delivered by different performers. This is a very different sort of movie from the stoner comedies or 80’s ripoff comedies David Gordon Green has most recently done, and yet I found the easy and subtle conversational comedy miles away from the cliched, stoner, or boring comedy of those earlier movies. I suppose it just goes to show you that sometimes you don’t need to go bonkers to be funny. Like many indie movies of the “two different people who are actually more alike than they realize at first and thus will gain perspective and overcome hardship together” ilk, it’s not for everyone, but if you like these two actors or that sort of bonding movie, this one can take you on a surreal, emotional ride. And it can show that the majesty of nature ain’t bad neither.