The “Accidental Getaway Driver” is based on the life of a Vietnamese American taxi driver who, in real life, was held hostage for a short duration by three escaped prisoners. This is parallel to Mann’s thrillers, particularly “Collateral” and “Thief”, due to their wide-stretched, crystal clear, nighttime still photography, as well as their slightly off-centred close-ups of faces deep in thought.
Unlike Mann’s works, this film is much quieter and on a smaller scale. It feels as though the movie is a stage production on wheels that takes a long detour into a motel room. The main character is a soft-spoken elderly gentleman, Long Ma. Played by Hiep Tran Nghia, a 50-year-old veteran turned actor, the character is a cab driver who, in his earlier days, served as a colonel during the war. Unlike other films where older characters are assumed to have advanced capabilities in terms of physically demanding feats like shimmying up drainpipes and sliding down through window openings to open up necks, the elder is not a badass old guy. This film centres around timeless psychological drama. It portrays how missed opportunities, painful losses, and regrets burden a person throughout their lifetime, regardless of whether someone is aiming a gun at them.
Long Ma’s story is similar to poor Dante’s story from “Clerks.” Long Ma also wasn’t supposed to be working on that day. He received a call while he was out shopping late at night, and the dispatcher had to persuade him to accept the job and pick up the passenger. Turns out there are three drivers: the possibly unhinged hardass Aden Salhi (Dali Benssalah), the likeable and pompous Tay Du’o’ng (Dustin Nguyen), and baby face Eddie Ly (Phi Vu). These individuals board Long Ma’s run-down vehicle and set off on a journey that, frankly, none of them seem entirely clear on. The specifics are understandably vague. But it doesn’t take Long Ma long to discover that he is a captive, and his options for dealing with that are limited.
If you are into movies, “The Accidental Getaway Driver” has a blend of genres that may catch your attention including a type of wilderness adventure where heavy crime takes place as innocent civilians are alternately ‘kidnapped’ and taken from Point A to Point B. The hostages are unable to liberate themselves through brute force instead, they need to usurp their captors’ psyche and their heads, then skillfully manipulate them into ‘liking’ them or sowing discord among the captors. Long Ma does not work that way, but each conversation he has with his passengers, which comes to a standstill because of silence and posturing, serves a similar purpose: ‘forced’ bonds across the aisle of humanity.
Part of the best scenes in the movie is looking at one criminal or the other in a closeup shot as he examines, hears, or simply thinks of Long Ma. You can tell from their expressions that they are trying very hard not to consider this old man as anything other than, well, collateral. Sing J. Lee in his feature debut also directed and co-wrote this with Christopher Chen. It’s clear to see that he knows how to frame the visuals and execute the performances. Collaborators like the wizard of negative space cinematographer Michael Fernandez are crucial and they are helpful to bring a singular vision to life. This is one of those productions which, although small in scope, have an impressive vibe that feels as big as the ambition.
The outcome is at times deeply respectful and moving, it seems that the film’s gas tank, narratively speaking, cannot sustain even the movie’s comparatively short running time. There’s definitely a story, but it takes its sweet time getting into gear. Some pauses (and some of the more formally rigid compositions) seem to be gallery-ready in terms of blocking and lighting yet get in the way of the performance (like a hotel room conversation held in the dark, where only the window rectangles are visible). This big-picture thinking is promising for a first film and is commendable for immersing the audience into its bespoke atmosphere with ease. However, the work comes off as a notion or promise rather than a polished project meant for repeated viewing to uncover intricacies previously overlooked.
The film’s greatest strength is the asset of all in its performances, as they function on strikingly different yet subtle or heightened registers. Hiep Tran Nghia is the standout existing, onscreen instead of performing, in some obvious sense. There is a world of difference between stage acting and film acting, and that difference is in the former being a product of in-the-moment cooperation with reacting creative colleagues. As one veteran actor explained to me, sometimes the best kind of movie performance is where the actor acknowledges non-verbally, emotionally, and intellectually to become a sort of human canvas that the other creatives can paint on. That is the kind of work he’s doing in “The Accidental Getaway Driver.” In the spirit of the title, I don’t think he intended to steal the movie, but that’s what happens. I like to think he just tucked it away and forgot that he stole the movie.
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