Hot Water pulls off a very neat trick in the guise of a road movie: it makes thought process form. The act of driving thousands of miles is what provides the mother and son at the heart of this story huge catharsis without a great deal of big stuff happening. Of course there’s big stuff happening, but all in their heads, as they think about their actions and their choices. The great joy of Hot Water is how organically (and amusingly) it all comes together.
Layal (Lubna Azabal) is a Lebanese professor of Arabic in Indiana, beset on all sides by exhausting people and unsatisfying circumstances. Her own son, Daniel (Daniel Zolghadri), is nineteen and still in high school, which he’s not embarrassed about. But early on in the new school year he’s caught on tape in an ugly physical fight and therefore expelled. This means the only way he can graduate high school now is to go live with his absentee father Anton (Gabe Fazio) in northern California. Anton agrees to take him, and he and Layal agree to split the driving and meet halfway in Colorado; Layal takes some emergency leave from work and she and Daniel load up the car. En route she fields constant calls from her sister Sara (Nay Tabbara) and mother (Nibal Sayegh) back home in Beirut, where there’s a crisis or two suddenly happening as well. And once they get to Colorado and the remote property belonging to Anton’s friend Sasha (Dale Dickey, always a delight), well. We all know what happens to best laid plans.
The squabbling between Daniel and Layal on the road feels incredibly normal. Their easy rapport and chatty dynamic together in motel rooms smelling of pee, diners where the food is confusing (what animal is a chicken-fried steak?) and their consideration of the scenery never directly addresses the many elephants in the room. How did a woman as sharp and organised as Layal pick Anton for her husband in the first place? Why is Daniel so behind and so unbothered? Why is Layal so unhappy these days? Why has Anton told so many obvious lies? But when you are a close as a mother is to her only son, nothing needs to be said directly. The way someone sets a glass down on a table can tell you more than enough.
Layal speaks with her mother in Arabic and her sister in French, but Daniel only speaks English and while he’s kindhearted and worried about them, he doesn’t seem especially connected with his broader family. For a modern kid he’s not connected with much, especially since Layal confiscates his phone early on as punishment for the fight at school, like he’s twelve instead of nineteen. Mr. Zolghadri finds the right note in showing how Daniel is not a bad kid, just maturing unusually slowly and happy to let his mother do his adulting for him. Sasha’s unexpected insights and kindness clearly helps crack something open in them both, while a brief, unpleasant encounter with a smelly hitchhiker (played by Max Walker-Silverman, director of the wonderful little movie A Love Song, which has a similar low-key fairy-tale vibe, starred Ms. Dickey and also opened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022) has an unexpected impact. Sometimes it takes a stranger to remind you of something you already know. And Ms. Azabal is a delightful actress, with a remarkable screen presence who makes her frustrations and worries clear even through her silences.
Writer-director Ramzi Bashour, who also did the score with James Elkington, does a really interesting job in his first feature of providing this very American concept with its unique twist. Alfonso Herrera Salcedo’s cinematography, which was clearly largely done from inside the car alongside the actors, manages to emphasize the open spaces of the American west without resorting to road trip cliches. The further choice to keep this story apolitical adds to its slight fairy-tale sense. Nothing changes until suddenly everything’s changed, and I’m not sure how well I’m conveying the sense of curiosity and adventure the film provides. These characters know where they’re going but not how they’ll get there, and neither are they prepared for what they find when they do arrive. Life can very much be like this. It was very pleasant to see a movie ebb and flow with thoughts and feelings with such warmth. Hot Water is one of those movies that you’ll think about long after its run time is over.
Hot Water recently played at the Sundance Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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