Title: A Perfect Day for Caribou
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Jeff Rutherford
Starring: Charlie Plummer, Jeb Berrier, Rachael Perrell Fosket
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

What It Is: Having decidedly lost all purpose in life, Herman (Berrier) is a middle-aged man who records his will, leading up to his committing suicide. Before he performs the act, he hails over his quiet, estranged adult son Nate (Plummer), to hand down his old truck. They meet at a quiet cemetery near the woods, catching up on each other’s lives. Nate finds that his young, likely autistic son whom he brought along has strayed away into the plains. Both father and son urgently search for the child, finding that they have more similarities and connections than they realized along the way, admitting their own experiences with love, family, grief, and regret.

What We Think: It’s a risk for any film to leave it to the viewer to be patient enough to sit through a string of meandering conversations. It’s atmospherically quiet, which seems to be the challenge of the film overall, is to explore the idea of what it takes to be patient, and what its merits are in the scope of establishing a true connection with others. The payoff for this drama becomes quite personal, as, while it may not entirely appear on the surface, you’re watching tremendous emotional growth from the lead characters, as they begin to realize that their familial connection, though stilted and halted, still has love and value to it. It’s a humble approach to what we observe as a humbling experience, and something perhaps many of us can apply to our daily lives.

Its framing and cinematography are gorgeous and expansive, evoking an ethereal loneliness much like Texas, Paris, with just as much realism, humanity, and honesty. The choice to keep the film black and white fits into the emotional narrative, setting us up for what feels like a real-time frantic search for the young, third-generation child of this family in an otherwise liminal plane. Their care for each other, though played off muted and subtle, becomes much more apparent as you see (quite closely) the concern Herman has for Nate has since trickled down for the love Nate has for his own son. This emphasis and emotional storytelling are expressed just plain beautifully, thanks to the concise filmmaking and realistic performances of the entire cast.

Our Grade: B+, An intimate portrait of a man and his son as they navigate the meaning of their own lives together, A Perfect Day for Caribou is a cinematic equivalent to a fatherly lullaby or holiday card. While exploring the weight of fatherhood and the regret that can be attached to it, we also see a great, downplayed extension of fatherhood and parenthood, and where that love really comes from. The payoff of having this father-son pair begin to truly experience that connection feels so special; a lovely feat on behalf of this enjoyably stream-of-consciousness sort of movie.