EXCESS BAGGAGE

EXCESS BAGGAGE is better than its marketing suggests. What looks like a teen-oriented road comedy is actually a surprisingly engrossing drama with occasional flashes of comedy. Its economical setup, unpredictable turns, competent acting, clever dialogue, and well-photographed scenery keep the story moving.

But the movie’s negative excess baggage weighs heavily. Emily’s drinking and smoking are treated first as signs of her disordered life, then appear in the feel-good ending. Her romance with Vincent moves implausibly fast, and the film never clearly condemns his car theft or fully develops its hints of repentance and restitution. Harsh language, threats, violence, drugs, and paternal abuse add to the burden.

You may find dramatic value in its portrait of damaged people beginning to face responsibility, but the film is not suitable for children or young teens. Watch it at home, if at all, where discerning adults can control the experience.

Frustrated teenager Emily Hope fakes her own kidnapping to win attention and a million-dollar ransom from her wealthy father. She binds, gags, cuffs, and locks herself in the trunk of her BMW.

Then Vincent, a high-tech car thief, steals the car without realizing that Emily is inside. Their desperate, muddled decisions soon draw police, gangsters, and Emily’s mysterious Uncle Max into a dangerous chase.

Three stars means this is a genuinely engrossing film with significant dramatic weaknesses. The movie’s economy works well: within minutes, the entire setup is underway, and the action rarely lets the audience breathe. Its twists are numerous and unpredictable, the acting is very competent, the dialogue is frequently clever, and the British Columbia scenery is well photographed.

The unrelieved tension keeps the characters’ fates and moral destinies in question. But the ending offers only an unsatisfying glimmer of awareness that their behavior has been wrong. Emily’s responsibility-taking is a step in the right direction, while Vincent’s moral change is left underdeveloped. The romance and feel-good conclusion also strain credibility.

The film presents a pagan worldview and follows people whose choices are shaped by desperation, selfishness, dishonesty, violence, and crooked business dealings. Emily’s faked kidnapping is a reckless attempt to obtain both love and money from her father. Her father remains a jerk to the end, while her mother’s death when Emily was three helps explain the damaged father-daughter relationship without excusing Emily’s behavior.

The movie does allow Emily to begin taking responsibility for her life. That movement could have supported a strong message about repentance and restitution, but the film stops short of clearly naming the moral wrong in several behaviors. Vincent apparently decides to stop stealing cars, yet the story never acknowledges plainly that car theft is morally wrong. His behavior is also portrayed as relatively benign beside the gangsters’ threats and the father’s crooked dealings.

The budding romance between Emily and Vincent further blurs the film’s moral perspective. After only a day of dangerous shared experiences, they drink, kiss, spend a cozy night together, and are presented in a final image that implies a happy future despite their immaturity and serious personal problems.

The film’s longing for a good father-daughter relationship points toward the need for honest repentance and restored responsibility. “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

EXCESS BAGGAGE has real strengths: tension, clever dialogue, competent acting, and a surprisingly engrossing story. But its harsh language, immorality, drinking, smoking, drugs, violence, and weak moral resolution make it unsuitable for children and young teens. Watch it at home only if you are a discerning adult. WAIT FOR HOME — ADULTS ONLY. For other choices, see.