movie review
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Starring: Aaron Paul
Written and directed by: Vince Gilligan
In the days leading up to the release of El Camino, as the Breaking Bad fandom dissected every single frame of the then-upcoming film’s trailer, it became glaringly obvious that the project had generated very high expectations. And why wouldn’t it have. This was, after all, the follow-up to one of the most critically acclaimed television series ever made, and with the drama’s genius creator, Vince Gilligan, once again at the helm, the cinematic continuation was bound to be a masterpiece that tied up any remaining loose ends while giving us the closure we didn’t even hitherto know we lacked.
But high expectations can be a tricky thing. And it’s these pesky expectations that make the otherwise thoroughly entertaining El Camino seem just a tad underwhelming in the end.
The movie picks up right where Breaking Bad left off. After escaping captivity, a beat-up, traumatized Jesse (Aaron Paul, reprising his Emmy-winning role) crashes at his friends Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) and Badger’s (Matt Jones) place, as the events of the scene he fled become national news, identifying him as a person of interest. With law enforcement on his tail, Jesse has to figure out how to evade capture, leave behind the mayhem that led him to this point, and hopefully head towards a peaceful future.
Guiding him on his journey are memories from his past in the form of flashbacks that both shape the narrative and give familiar faces a chance to reappear.
Some sequels and follow-ups are designed to also work for viewers who may not have watched the original. El Camino isn’t one of them. Primarily created for the fans, the film recaptures the feeling of its parent series, and basically feels like an extended episode of the show. The familiar characters, setting, and ambience invoke nostalgia that BrBa fans will find impossible to resist. Gilligan is as terrific as ever at writing compelling characters, and once again puts together dark drama and wry wit into an intriguing narrative.
But El Camino doesn’t really make any mindblowing revelations or offer any spectacular twists. Instead this meditative slow burn takes Jesse on a journey, the overall trajectory of which is pretty much what you would have expected. It takes you to its conclusion competently and efficiently, but it does leave you with the feeling that where it ends would have been a more fascinating place for the film to begin instead. Maybe covering a greater stretch of time instead of focusing solely on the immediate aftermath would have made the project even more rewarding.
And while this is certainly not a criticism of the movie itself but a side-effect of the aforementioned expectations, El Camino may not necessarily focus on the things that you would have wanted to see. Many old characters make an appearance; several are conspicuously absent. Some fates are revealed; others are left unmentioned. But then again, this was always meant to be Jesse’s story, not a sweeping, all-encompassing epilogue to the entire BrBa universe. For all we know, Gilligan may have more projects planned that will give us what we missed here.
The acting, once again, is terrific. Aaron Paul is fantastic in the lead role and is supported by a wonderful cast, although, given how long it’s been since the original series ended, it is inevitable that the actors don’t look the same as they did before; one in particular is almost distractingly different and gets more screen time than seems necessary.
All in all, El Camino is a compelling, entertaining continuation that may not be as ambitious as some of us would have hoped but is beautiful nonetheless. If you're curious to find out exactly how Jesse managed to get out of Dodge, then point your browser to Netflix and press play on this Breaking Bad movie immediately so that you can enjoy a poignant reunion with some unforgettable characters.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
- By Sameen Amer
The Express Tribune Blog - 12th October, 2019 *
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