Ape Canyon – Drama Movie Review
What’s it All About
Cal Piker’s life has recently been turned upside down by the death of his mother. Not the type to let his thoughts or feelings show, his internal struggle manifests in him setting up a spontaneous trip for him and his sister, Samantha, to go to Oregon’s Ape Canyon in search of bigfoot. At Cal’s behest, Samantha begrudgingly accompanies Cal on his ill-advised journey, after he tells her that he used her credit card to pay their way, and that she owes him one because he took care of all of their mother’s funeral arrangements by himself. Through several misadventures and setbacks along the way, Cal will stop at nothing (not even the law) to get to Ape Canyon to find bigfoot.
My Opinion
Admittedly, I came into this film wanting to be entertained by a bigfoot sighting, or some type of monumental bipedal discovery, but I was pleasantly surprised by a deeper meaning, while getting close to missing the metaphor here in Cal’s life. The movie had a few themes that were tied together by the end – one, that Cal’s life was seen as a screw up by his family, and two, Cal was a good person that just seemed to revert back to his inner child and need for adventure and mystery when faced with trauma. What better mystery than a hunt for bigfoot? Cal insisted several times throughout the movie that he had to go to Ape Canyon because “that’s were they are”. And, several times his sister asked him why he needed to go so far to find bigfoot. What was it about Ape Canyon made it that that’s where the whole of the bigfoot population lives? Cal could not voice a reasonable response to that query. People supposedly have bigfoot sightings all over the place. Why couldn’t he just go camping nearer his home with his family, make an outing of it, and find bigfoot there?
Many of life’s dramas seem to play out on the subconscious level. That seems to be what was at play here. The viewer comes to learn that Cal had people leaving his life, including his wife and daughter, in a way he felt he had no control over. Searching for bigfoot, that ever-elusive creature, was Cal’s way to reclaim them. Further, Cal wasn’t the monster (or bad guy) that his family thought he was, and if he could find bigfoot, he could somehow prove that.
The Verdict
Everyone is a screw up; maybe to varying degrees. But, everyone has their own unique experiences and perspective that lead them to be who they are, however imperfect that may be. No matter if it makes sense or not to the outside world, there are reasons for each individual’s makeup, and if you care enough to find out what makes someone tick, you just might.
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