Friday, Oct. 9, is the release date for āTrucker,ā a so-called āsmall indie filmā that thus will see a limited release, but perhaps itās in your area. The press for the movie, at least as run with in many outlets, traffics in some stereotyping ā āMichelle Monaghan is transformed from a hard-drinking, hard-living truckerā into a mother, said one online entertainment-show host, for instance, as if the two were impossible to contain within the same person and pigeonholing the lot of Americaās hardworking haulers ā but the reality of the flickās story seems more broadly realistic and is, after all, a quite specific story about one young womanās journey to come to terms with motherhood.
See, for instance, the interview with Monaghan at LatinoReview.com conducted by Dave Gonzalez and published yesterday. Monaghan went the extra mile with writer/director James Mottern shooting the flick, spending a great deal of time in truckstops around the nation talking to drivers and getting a feel for the road. She even got her CDL, she tells Gonzalez, and at one point adds that she misses the feeling of life out on the road.
I havenāt seen āTruckerā yet, and so will reserve judgment for later, but hereās hoping that its title is not meant just as an evocation of old stereotypes but an explosion of them, moving beyond stock portrayals to capture the more bittersweet reality of family life and the road.
You can watch the filmās trailer here.
