Thunder Road

Very much the passion project of writer and performer Jim Cummings, Thunder Road is based on a 13-minute short film in which Cummings plays grief-stricken police officer Jim Arnaud, who's giving an excruciating eulogy at his mother's funeral. This now forms the opening scene of the full-length feature, named after Arnaud's mother's favourite Bruce Springsteen song. Shot on the hoof around Austin, Texas, it certainly announces the gangly, Jim Carrey-indebted Cummings as a precocious talent, although some will find that the extended riff outlives the novelty value of its welcome. Written, directed, scored and co-edited by the resourceful Cummings, the feature reveals the full extent of Arnaud's woes: a bad-tempered divorce, the feared loss of custody of his daughter (Kendal Farr), trouble at work due to mental stress and a dance academy bequeathed to him by his mother, all of which build to an inevitable crescendo. Cummings slaloms between a sweet nature and a short volatile temper, making him a hard man to like, but he gives a committed performance.