THE STORY – During a routine pickup, an elderly Vietnamese cab driver is taken hostage at gunpoint by three recently escaped Orange County convicts.
THE CAST – Hiep Tran Nghia, Dustin Nguyen, Phi Vu, Dali Benssalah & Gabrielle Chan
THE TEAM – Sing J. Lee (Director/Writer) & Christopher Chen (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 102 Minutes
“The Accidental Getaway Driver” is a well-acted and crafted yet surprisingly emotional true-crime thriller that is regrettably short on thrills. It tells the true story of Long Ma, an elderly Vietnamese American taxi driver who is then kidnapped and forced to transport a trio of escaped prisoners. As Long Ma fights to stay alive, he also forms curious bonds with his captors.
From the eerie opening shots of a young boy in Vietnam and its montage of a lonely Long Ma going throughout his day without making any human connections, it is clear that “The Accidental Getaway Driver” boasts impeccable craftsmanship. Even before Long Ma’s life forever changes with his kidnapping, there is an eerie drone in the background that is building a sense of dread. The sound team incorporates everyday noises like the metronome-like clicking of a turn signal and the ringing of a dial tone to ratchet that tension up slowly.
“The Accidental Getaway Driver” functions best as a thriller in these early moments. However, the film shifts to something else once Long Ma is kidnapped—a slow-paced, melancholy reflection on masculinity and identity as demonstrated by four very different men. Far from opting for the nail-biting tension of a hostage story set over a single night along the lines of “Collateral,” “The Accidental Getaway Driver” instead spreads its story out over multiple days. This allows for interesting character moments as Long Ma begins to bond with one of his kidnappers and is forced to reflect on his own decisions as a father and husband and to decide what kind of man he wants to be. The slowly building friendship between him and one of his captors is affecting and provides for some nice character arcs. At the same time, the deliberate pacing drains much of the suspense out of the proceedings. When this arc brings the film to its action and emotional-filled climax, it spends another 25 minutes wrapping things up. It’s a shame that the filmmakers couldn’t strike a better balance between the suspense and character exploration, as it initially creates something special but doesn’t follow through on that early promise.
Despite the slow pace and relative lack of suspense, there is much to admire in “The Accidental Getaway Driver.” The cast is uniformly strong. The prisoners are menacing while displaying varying degrees of vulnerability and kindness beneath their exteriors. Hiep Tran Nghia as Long Ma is absolutely heartbreaking. Even as a man of few words, the viewer comes to know him deeply and roots for him to survive, thanks to the amount he can communicate with a wide-eyed stare. His sad eyes tell us his whole life story in a towering performance.
Director Sing J. Lee takes advantage of that strong performance, emphasizing how much work Tran Nghia’s eyes do through Jonathan Demme-esque closeups. The sound design emphasizes Long Ma’s isolation by shifting to his POV when the viewer is meant to see that he doesn’t understand English. The dialogue becomes muffled and indecipherable. It’s an interesting effect that helps us understand just how lost he feels. The nighttime sequences are well-lit and well-framed. Lee clearly has impressive technical directing abilities and can only refine himself as a storyteller moving forward.
There is a moving story at the center of “The Accidental Getaway Driver,” and its craftsmanship and performances are undeniable. It could have been an indie masterpiece if it had worked out its tension and pacing issues. As it is, it is still a moving meditation on masculinity, the immigrant experience, and loneliness in modern American life.
