Cas and Dylan

Richard Dreyfuss is Cas Pepper, a 61-year-old doctor who is dying of a brain tumor. (Yes, he really is Dr. Pepper.) Dylan is a flighty 21-year-old aspiring writer played by Tatiana Maslany. Through a series of implausible events, they find themselves on a road trip in an orange VW bug, crossing the Canadian plains and then the Rockies on their way to Vancouver. She discovers several drafts he has written of a suicide note … but he has writer’s block. She determines to help him write it.

It is an interesting proposition, but not much is done with it. This is a fairly routine buddy picture, where they start out enemies, especially crotchety old Dr. Pepper, but you know they will grow to love each other in the last half hour.

The film was shot during the summer before Maslany auditioned for and got the multiple roles of at least a dozen clones in the breakout hit Orphan Black. In a few months Tatiana would dazzle everyone in her star-making turn. In a short interview in the extra material she admits it was a bit intimidating to work with a big Hollywood star like Dreyfuss. Before this she had made several small Canadian movies and some TV, none of which were really seen south of the border, or even in Canada for that matter. She had no idea that she would soon be adored by legions of fans, get an Emmy nomination, and appear on the Tonight Show. But she holds her own in a movie that might not even have had a DVD release without her name being attached to it.