Zak, a young man with Down’s Syndrome, runs away from his care home and finds an unlikely ally in aimless fisherman, Tyler. Eleanor, Zak’s carer, tags along in Zak’s quest to enrol in The Salt Water Redneck Wrestling School.
We must very quickly use the word ‘feelgood’ in this review. Essentially, this is a modern-day Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn tale of friendship and adventure. Together, as they travel through the deltas of Georgia, the group avoid capture whilst fishing, drinking whisky, ‘finding God’ and, of course, eventually coming upon The Salt Water Redneck Wrestling School which doesn’t end quite as they’d hoped. Gottsagen is, undoubtedly, the star of the show here but LaBoeuf also turns in a great performance, perhaps his best to date. Johnson is good too. You have to search hard these days for such heart-warming stories amongst the CGI, superheroes and dark crime themes of movies. Good to have something different. So why don’t you float down the river with Zak and his friends, meeting an odd selection of characters along the way, having a laugh and even a cry. This film makes you feel better about things.
The Ruderman Family Foundation honoured the film with its Seal of Authentic Representation for accurate depictions of people with disabilities.
Directors: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz
Cast: Zack Gottsagen, Shia LaBoeuf, Dakota Johnson
Certificate: 12A
1 hour 29 min
BBC iPlayer, Youtube and Prime
