Movie review: "Last Ride"

COLIN COVERT | Updated 9/7/2012

Hugo Weaving, left, and Tom Russell in the Australian outback in "Last Ride."
Associated Press - Nyt

In this outback road movie, Australian actor Hugo Weaving dirties up to play Kev, an ex-con on a camping trip with his 10-year-old son Chook (the flawlessly naturalistic Tom Russell). The dynamic between the two is as mysterious and unforgiving as the desert vistas they travel. Their relationship is love and suspicion, rejection and dependency, faith and disappointment all in a knot. Weaving finds Kev's humanity, winning our grudging pity for a hothead doomed by his nitroglycerine temper and thoughtlessness. Stunning camerawork by Greig Fraser ("Snow White and the Huntsman") finds eerie beauty in desolate landscapes. The title more or less gives away the film's design, but the predestined journey is taut and tragic nevertheless. (Unrated.)