Sorry, this movie sucks

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Vincent Rhodes (Robert Sheehan) suffers from Tourette Syndrome. After his mother's death, his estranged father Robert (Robert Patrick) sends him away for treatment. He is roomed with obsessive clean freak Alex (Dev Patel). He falls for anorexic Marie (Zoë Kravitz). He and Marie run away stealing Dr. Rose (Kyra Sedgwick)'s car. Alex is going to tell on them so they kidnap him. The trio have an adventure as Robert and the doctor pursue them. Robert is unable to call the cops because of his political ambitions.These are three interesting young performers in a fun road trip. They have great chemistry together. Zoë is enchanting and Dev is funny. I've been a fan of Sheehan since Misfits. As long as the movie stays with the group, it is perfectly fine. I find the ending satisfying. The three characters have their potholes in the road. They're not completely fixed in the end but they are better which is expected for this type of movie. Patrick and Sedgwick form the other half of the movie. Some of their scenes could be cut. In many ways, they are unimportant. I would rather spend the time with the trio as they work out their issues.

I found this small movie on Netflix streaming, it apparently was released at several film festivals but never was in theaters.Robert Sheehan is Vincent and we are introduced to him at his mother's funeral. He says some very inappropriate things as the minister is speaking and we soon figure out he has Tourette's. His father, Robert Patrick as Robert, a politician running for office, appears to be at the end of his rope with Vincent and has arranged for him to placed in an institution for misfits.There he gets paired with Dev Patel as Alex, an OCD clean freak who strongly objects to having a roommate. And he is shown around by Zoë Kravitz as Marie who is rail thin and fighting Anorexia. The institution is run by Kyra Sedgwick as Dr. Mia Rose.Each of the three misfits need to resolve old issues and they get a chance as they are thrown into an unlikely road trip from the institution in Nevada to the Pacific Coast, where Vincent wants to carry his mother's ashes. He has a photo of her there and she seems the happiest to him.The road trip of course doesn't go smoothly, starting with their stealing Dr Rose's car but without money or an operating credit card. Their detour takes them through Yosemite National Park and the cinematographer dwelled nicely on scenes with Half Dome and the characters. They eventually work their way to Santa Cruz and in the process are able to learn how to gain some control over their respective issues.It is ironic for me, just 3 weeks ago I made my first visit to Santa Cruz for a mini-vacation and now I see it again in this movie!Not a great movie by any measure but very interesting if you like to see misfits trying to cope with ordinary life.

So mental illness is something I struggle with. One of the major ones is OCD. I'm tired of movies and shows portraying OCDers as germaphobes. OCD can be much more complex than that. As well, for tourettes, I don't know anyone who has it, but I got the sense it was being used as comic relief and was slightly exaggerated. As far as the female character goes, not all women with eating disorder are the "rebel type"...I believe the films creators had good intentions though. The level of filmmaking is only mid tier, as they relied on way too many tropes. Tropes I've seen seeing since I was a little feller and watched my second movie. It was also quite predictable.Honestly though, I don't know if someone with mental illness would write a movie like this and I wonder if the screenwriter even has mental illness himself, or just thought it'd be a "touching" story, with the Oscar statue lingering in the back of his mind.Still, it's hard to resist the journey the characters go through and the way they bond over their illnesses. As someone who's been there myself, I know that bond can be very powerful. Social Stigma is still very strong and it's hard to find someone suffering from a debilitating disease that is going to open up to you and be your friend.I also appreciated the use of music in this film. At first, I thought I left my Classical playlist running, but it was just Dev Patel playing Bach while he madly cleaned his room from germs. It snyched pretty well. The other songs were perfect for the scenes as well. Yet this is the only artistic merit I would grant this movie.Stil, I gave it a 7 because overall I think it depicted metal illness sufferers as real, hell even normal, people. It was fast paced, quick and to the point. I enjoyed watching it. Oscar Contender or Indie favorite it is not, it still kept me entertained.

As one who has lived with Tourette's myself and as a parent, I was pleased at how accurately this was portrayed. Robert Sheehan was most impressive and expressive. This actor conveys such sad torture with his eyes whilst in the throes of episode, I just wanted to hug him. Though many with Tourette's display the tics and vocalizing rather than the verbal profanity often used to show example, this film got all angles right. The words of the father in regard to his son made me cry...the writer/director must have dealt with this in life as she got the raw emotion of this disorder from the eyes of both parent and child. The Tic Code starring Christopher Marquette and the late Gregory Hines is another revelation in film focusing on life with and the parenting of one with Tourette's. The way The Road Within ties together OCD, anorexia and Tourette's with these brilliant young performers had me wishing it had debuted bigger and they had received far more accolades for their work. Along with Robert Sheehan, Zoe Kravitz is a study in subtlety without being dull and Dev Patel is all palpable anxiety. Robert Patrick's guilty dad believably shows his true colors and Kyra Sedgwick makes an easy piece as caring clinical director her own. This film should be shown in psychology courses for study.