There’s always inspiration to be found in the story of a single mom. They are, by and large, good people and try their hardest to provide for their kids and all that. But what if a single mom is also a reluctant mom, someone who never really intended to be a mother and has rejected the role only to be thrown unexpectedly in to the job?
That’s the story of Trucker. Michelle Monaghan plays a woman who years ago left the baby she had with the man she was with at the time. But now he’s dying and so places the kid, now about 10 years old, in her care. She’s a truck-driver, though, moving from place to place and enjoying the solitary life and transitory connections she’s built up along the way. So she’s now faced with the prospect of bringing a young kid on the road with her, a process that turns into a learning opportunity for both mother and child.
The Posters
The poster doesn’t do a whole lot other than show off the characters in the movie and hint at some of the relationships that exist between them. At the top we see Monaghan alone driving her truck, showing us what her job and seemingly her attitude is. In the middle we have her positioned kind of awkwardly next to her estranged son and at the bottom there’s a split between her and Fillion, making it clear there’s a connection there that the movie will deal with in some way. There’s also plenty about what film festivals the movie has appeared at, something designed to appeal to the segment of the audience that’s interested in such things.
The Trailers
While a bit choppy at times in terms of the editing, the trailer works pretty well at showing what the movie is about, making it clear that Monaghan’s character is a strong, independent woman who, despite that, is still struggling with who she is. We get a sense of the relationships that make up the movie, especially between her and the son she hasn’t known since birth, and how they all go into making her who she is.
The critic’s quotes about the movie almost universally are focused on Monaghan’s performance as a star-making one and how she reaches some great territory with the character. Since, as we’ll see below, that performance is being buzzed about to some extent that’s not surprising and definitely shows that’s the direction the studio is taking in promoting the movie.
Online
The official website is pretty light, even by generous standards. The poster and trailer are there and some basic information about the movie but that’s basically it. Most of the page’s real estate is given over to the display of festivals and other events where the movie has screened as well as pull quotes from some reviews that resulted from those appearances.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
Non-existent on both counts.
Media and Publicity
Not much outside of the aforementioned reviews. A few months ago there was a bit of buzz around Monaghan’s performance being something that might be Oscar-worthy but that seemed to be short-lived and never really gained much momentum. There was more when it was announced Montery Media had picked up distribution rights but aside from those three categories there wasn’t a whole lot of buzz.
Overall
It’s small, which is somewhat to be expected, but it’s alright. I think it sells the movie pretty well given that the campaign is made up almost solely of the trailer and poster with a little bit of word-of-mouth publicity thrown in. But for a movie that the studio and filmmakers are trying to position as containing an Oscar-worthy performance it’s way too sparse, almost to the point of non-existence.
Chris Thilk 