Tow: Rose Byrne’s Striking Performance in a True Story Dramedy

Coming off the heels of a Best Actress nomination at this month’s Academy Awards, Rose Byrne starts in Tow, a new dramedy from director Stephanie Laing. Based on a true story, the film follows Amanda Ogle (Byrne), an unhoused woman living in her aging Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle. When her only lifeline is stolen and later impounded, she is thrust into a relentless legal battle against an indifferent system offering her very little support. What was once a fight to reclaim her car evolves into a story of resilience, dignity, and the power of one woman’s voice in the face of a troubled system. In spite of its issues, Tow offers up a decent dramedy that, while shallow and lacking the kind of impact needed to take it to another level, provides Byrne another showcase for which she takes full advantage, delivering another terrific performance.

Byrne is easily the best thing about the film, and is undoubtedly its biggest selling point. As mentioned, she delivers another incredible performance, and one that is much different from her recently Academy Award nominated work in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, playing a character that is similarly pushed to their limit and thrown into real world chaos from the start. As Amanda, Byrne is the heart and soul of the film, making some incredibly risky choices, such as what she does with her voice, but these choices all pay off and help make Amanda all the richer. Meanwhile, the film boasts quite a stacked supporting cast, featuring the likes of Sessa, Lovato, Ariana DeBose, Simon Rex, Elsie Fisher, and the great Octavia Spencer. Sessa, as Kevin, is the standout of the supporting cast and makes the most out of a meaty role, thanks to his strong chemistry with Byrne. On the other hand, Rex offers some great comedic relief as Cliff, and Octavia Spencer graces the film with her presence as Barbara.

For the most part, the film is an entertaining watch that moves at a good pace, and is made all the more fascinating for its true story inspiration. Despite the seemingly dire circumstances of the story, the film finds plenty of humor in the situation, mining big laughs out of the chaos throughout. To that effect, some audiences have compared it to Martin Scorsese’s 1985 classic ‘After Hours.’ While there is some overlap between this film and ‘After Hours,’ Tow fails to reach the same extremes as the latter. However, the film does carry over some of the same stressful, anxiety-inducing vibe that will have audiences on edge, and also gets dark at times in a way that is befitting to the kind of story it is trying to tell.

While solid and deficient in glaring issues that could threaten to weigh it down, it is nothing more than a one time watch, and one unable to rise to the occasion and meet the potential of what it could have been, considering the story and the impressive cast assembled here. Throwing several tonal shifts in the way of audiences, as the film goes from a chaotic and anxiety inducing dark comedy, to more of a real world commentary that is clearly trying to say something important, it doesn’t exactly come across in the smoothest way. Though fascinating, the true story cannot quite sustain this cinematic adaptation. To its credit, while it is never boring, real world stakes aside, it is also not enough to ever become emotionally invested in on any deeper level.

Tow is a decent dramedy that is as funny as it is tragic, putting audiences on a roller coaster led by yet another fantastic Rose Byrne performance. While the film falls short of greatness, its fascinating true story, and Byrne’s performance make it worth a watch. Be sure to check it out so it doesn’t fly under the radar.

still courtesy of Game Theory Films

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/