This is Martin Bonner [HD]

4.5 stars... quiet but captivating drama could've been called "This Is Travis Holloway"
"This Is Martin Bonner" (2913 release; 83 min.) brings the story of Martin Bonner (played by Paul Eenhorn), an Australian native but long-time US resident who recently has taken a job in Reno, NV, helping inmates at the Northern Nevada Correctional Facility to prepare for life back on the outside. By happenstance, Bonner gets to know Travis Holloway (played by Richmond Arquette), who was just released after a 12 year stint (we only learn much later what for). Both men being new to the area, they come to rely on each other for moral support. As the movie unfolds, we learn more of the personal background of each. To tell you more of the plot would ruin your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is one of those "little movies that could", and delivers a deeply moving story of two men trying to adjust to new circumstances. "This Is Martin Bonner" moves at snail's pace, and I mean that as a compliment. Check out...

An introspective look at two men trying to find themselves
For some, this may be a slow-moving film, but that's really the whole idea, as Martin Bonner and a just-released prisoner find a friendship based on discovering that they have more than a few things in common. You'll believe that the actors are, indeed, the characters they are playing! For older teens and above, since this is rated "R" for language and sexuality.

A quietly perfect story
The story involves an older, gray haired man starting a new job in a correctional institute in Reno. We see him unpacking his few belongings in a modest apartment and endure a difficult first day at the job. Then he picks up a fellow on the road who has just been released. What unfolds is the friendship between the two and the way each of them copes with the challenges of his new life.

The actors are first rate. I was particularly impressed by Richmond Arquette as Travis Holloway, the ex-con. From the first moment when we see him hunched down to protect himself from the cold, he portrays a very believable person. As wonderful as all the actors were it is Travis' face that stuck with me long after seeing the show. He's just so ordinary...he isn't handsome, sexy, charismatic or smart. And yet there's more to him than that, too. In a way it's really Travis' movie and I have to wonder why it's titled after Martin. Sam Buchanan as Diana, Travis' daughter gives a killer...

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