Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		2.5

One for the Road Blu-ray Movie Review

Alcoholics unanimous.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 7, 2022

UK director Chris Cooke's first and only feature film One for the Road made a mild ripple upon its 2003 release, picking up a few awards at film festivals and earning comparisons to then-recent hits like Ricky Gervais' original The Office with its quasi-documentary atmosphere and stabs at pitch-black comedy. Shot on low-res digital video, this micro-budget production follows Richard (Hywel Bennett), Jimmy (Gregory Chisholm), Mark (Mark Devenport), and Paul (Rupert Procter), four men from completely different walks of life with one thing in common: they're convicted drunk drivers who have agreed to take a compulsory rehabilitation class to lessen their lengthy driving bans.

With friends like these, who needs friends, right? But in all fairness, One for the Road doesn't exactly glamorize its off-putting roster of characters even as it gives them center stage. If nothing else, it does a decent job of capturing the mind-numbing, bleary state of this kind of living, pairing its raw atmosphere and subject matter with deadpan sarcasm and one-liners. Our main four antagonists are also decently well-written and their disparate backgrounds play into the same shared mindset, which includes a strong sense of delusion and stubborn unwillingness to grow up.

Still, that kind of formula can only go so far to maintain interest and, in this case, it's not nearly enough to carry a feature-length film. One for the Road wears out its welcome in relatively short order, occasionally showing signs of life but mostly spinning its wheels in the second half and especially its last 20 minutes, which struggle to reach anything close to a satisfying conclusion. The film's technical limitations are also a factor; its dull and lifeless visual aesthetic looks as bad or worse than most digital video shot during this era, which unsurprisingly sucks additional life out of the proceedings. Director Chris Cooke promptly returned to short films and has stayed there since, and it's easy to see that this lone attempt at full-length fare was an occasionally respectable but mostly missed opportunity.

Anyone with much closer ties to its main characters may find more to like about One for the Road, but its redundant tone and piss-poor technical roots firmly outweigh any strong points. It's strange, then, that the usually higher-profile boutique label Powerhouse Films has chosen to include it as part of their ongoing "Indicator" line of limited edition Blu-rays and released it on this side of the pond. But for those who enjoyed the film more than I, they'll at least find a lot to like about this disc including a decent A/V presentation, great packaging, and plenty of extras.

One for the Road Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

One For the Road is certainly an... interesting looking Blu-ray, and one that's advertised by Powerhouse Films as being sourced from original preservation print. (The booklet implies it was an SD source.) Whatever its roots, this is a pretty rough-looking production shot on early 2000s digital video and suffers from all the weaknesses that come with the format: poor image detail, no textures, unsteady black levels, harsh contrast, and more, which is further exacerbated by very noticeable posterization, ringing, jagged edges, and interlacing. The faults are almost too many to name, really. But it's exceedingly tough to review discs like this from a technical standpoint: of course One for the Road deserves a 1/5 in comparison to a carefully preserved or meticulously restored production captured on 35mm film, yet at the same time this is likely as good as it's ever going to look outside of watching original master tapes. Either way, the included screenshots reveal just how ugly One for the Road can be at times, and even in its best moments isn't anywhere close to being truly impressive... so I'll leave it at that and award a 2.5/5 right down the middle.

One for the Road Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, presented in your choice of 2.0 Stereo (the default) or 5.1 surround, are actually much more tolerable in comparison and even borderline admirable at times, squeezing a decent amount of clarity out of dialogue exchanges and background effects with occasional channel separation and discrete activity. The 5.1 takes it two steps further with occasional weight added for dramatic purposes, not to mention a more fluid sonic backdrop that's created by having more subtle real-world ambience in several key areas, from a cramped car to wide-open outdoor locations. While neither of these mixes truly stand out even among genre contemporaries, One for the Road at least sounds decent enough and the presence of both tracks is certainly appreciated.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, and you'll certainly need them to decipher a few drunken ramblings and heavy regional accents along the way.

One for the Road Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in Indicator's typical deluxe packaging, with a Criterion-style thick keepcase that proudly displays its reversible cover artwork. A thick and glossy booklet is also tucked inside that includes attractive photos, the usual production fare including cast/crew details, acknowledgements, a few essays and interviews, and of course details about the A/V presentations. On-disc extras are surprisingly great for a movie this underwhelming.

• Audio Commentary #1 - Featuring writer/director Chris Cooke with producer Kate Ogborn and co-producer Helen Solomon, this full-length track unsurprisingly leans heavy on the film's development and production with plenty of details about the on-set experience, fine-tuning the script, assembling the cast, and more.

• Audio Commentary #2 - This cast commentary groups together actors Greg Chisholm, Mark Devenport, and Rupert Procter, who spend most of their time cracking jokes and sharing stories from the set. Perhaps the more casually entertaining of the two, it's nonetheless pretty disposable and thus for die-hard fans only.

• One for the Road: An Oral History (47:44) - This newly-produced retrospective documentary gathers together a wide assortment of key cast and crew members including writer/director Chris Cooke; actors Greg Chisholm, Mark Devenport, Rupert Procter, and Johann Myers; composer Steve Blackman; and camera operator Steven Sheil. There's obviously some overlap with the commentaries but some good info is shared here, from the short film's initial pitch meeting to One for the Road's premiere, as well as candid on-set footage.

• Workshop Footage (6:21) - Rehearsal footage or audition tapes?>< You decide.

• Character Studies (14:46) - A handful of short Improvisational exercises with actors Mark Davenport and Rupert Procter, originally intended as means to develop their characters, that were later used as part of the film's theatrical promotion on One for the Road's official website.

• Video Diaries (18:53) - Recorded after the release of One for the Road, these short video diaries were filmed by writer/director Chris Cooke to document the creation of several new and upcoming projects.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:44)

• Image Galleries - A high-res collection of promotional materials, plus the original screenplay.

• Short Films - Five shorts directed by Chris Cooke between 1998 and 2016, including the original short that One for the Road was based on. Some are presented with optional audio commentary by the director.

• Map of the Scars (2008, 11:06) with optional audio commentary
• Shifting Units (2000, 8:28) with optional audio commentary
• Why I Hate Parties But Pretend to Love Them (2003, 10:32)
• Gary the Rapper vs Stefan Blix (2014, 13:56)
• Whiskers and Jane (2016, 13:32)

One for the Road Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chris Cooke's One For the Road arrived a bit too late to be considered a forerunner of Ricky Gervais' The Office, which it clearly mimics in tone along with other imports like the films of Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels), Shane Meadows (This is England), and maybe even Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), but it's nowhere near as great as its inspirations in most areas. Though good for a few laughs and showing a few signs of intermittent brilliance, One For the Road is a mostly lukewarm and dour affair whose technical limitations routinely work against it. Powerhouse Films' Blu-ray package is surprisingly solid in other respects, from its serviceable A/V presentation (considering the source, at least) to great packaging and a boatload of bonus features. But yeah... try before you buy, at the most.