Along for the Ride

When two objects hurtle toward each other at full speed, a collision becomes inevitable. And so it is with two grown brothers whose animosities have been churning within them since childhood. Their hostilities, their annoyances, petty grievances and frustration all have one source: their father. And it is their deceased father whom they now come to bury. Terry and Vance Cowens, two estranged brothers whose mother died when they were children, meet on a desolate highway in Mexico. Together they drive to a small town where they expect to bid farewell to their recently deceased father, Jake. Jake was an absentee father, a ball player on the road, chasing glory with one minor league team after another. After never making it to the "show", Jake finally winds up in Mexico, retired, watching baseball on television with Maria, until his death. Terry and Vance are stunned to find Jake's body being preserved in the walk-in freezer of a small cantina. They have no choice but to put Jake in the back seat of their car and drive to the nearest town some three hours away. Death, in the form of their father, rides along under the starry night and forces the two brothers to confront themselves and each other. Terry, a former major league pitcher, and Vance, a letter carrier, rehash their childhood and their respective feelings for Jake. The two brothers argue their differences as the desert rolls past them, rehashing old arguments, reopening old wounds. After they finally realize that their lives are being weighted down by the ghosts of their pasts. They make peace with each other and arrive at the perfect solution to not only their emotional burdens, but with their father's corpse as well. When it comes to problem-solving, the world may offer group therapy, gestalt, past-life regression hypnotherapy, transcendental meditation and electroshock therapy. But sometimes, a long ride through the Mexican desert with your dead father in the back seat can be more therapeutic than everything else combined.