Sam is a well-adjusted 17-year-old high school girl. Her father invites her to go on a backpacking trip in the Catskills, a couple of hours north of New York City. Scheduled to come with them are Chris’ best friend Matt, and his teenage son. But during the morning of the departure, Matt and his son have a huge fight, and Matt ends up going alone. His marriage is shot, and his son is suffering from it.
During the trip Matt and Chris are the immature ones, and Sam keeps an even keel. What 17-year-old girl wants to go hiking with her middle-age dad and his friend? Sam apparently does, and she actually enjoys herself. Until Matt does something very wrong.
Good One is a slow-moving film. I have hiked in the Catskills and the Adirondacks. It’s remote, green, muggy, buggy, often muddy, with rough trails and steep hills. It’s a place to get away from it all. Good One brings that to us. There is no sound track. Just crickets and frogs and bugs and talking. Most of the talking is done by the two men, unloading their problems, their regrets, their hurts, and the girl does most of the listening. The movie creates this slow walking mood that gradually turns into unease.
Then Sam takes charge.
