Trucker

Michelle Monaghan has proven herself as a top actress with two recent films. In Made of Honor, opposite Patrick Dempsey, she demonstrated that she could do a romantic role with charm and ease. In Eagle Eye, with Shia LaBoeuf, she showed her skills in the thriller domain. In Trucker, Michelle is awesome when she's behind the wheel...and less impressive when she's playing mom.

Quite often actors get inspired by an idea, work on a script, and finance a film. For some reason, Michelle found the notion of playing a young female trucker worthy of her money. She financed a film that is only partially good.

Without makeup, and wearing jeans and frayed shirts, Michelle is perfect as the tough, no-nonsense rig driver, who is driven to get her truck to places on time, and only pauses to bed a few no-name young studs with whom she has no desire to bond. The entire lifestyle of the female trucker, including her modest house, visits to truck stops, and hours on the road, are extremely well done.

The film falters when the protagonist tries to play mom. No spoiler, as usual, but whoever penned the words between the mother and her eleven year old son has never had kids. The lines are so far off as to be absurd. The big question: Will Michelle as "mom" ever learn to be a good mother? Will she stop living the hard life and stop running from her past?

I'd recommend the film for the non-mom scenes. A great look at life for a pretty young driver who handles grit just fine. The confused, driven protagonist is a feminist at heart. Best to look to other films for the distant parent/needy child reconciliation theme. It just does not work here.