Critic Reviews

Patient, meditative, and sanguine, Adopt a Highway is a rugged slice of Americana.

Adopt a Highway is a small film but mighty, thanks to Hawke’s reserved yet touching performance as a broken man learning to test his wings again, and Marshall-Green’s willingness to take Russell down unexpected paths.

Like a spare short story, this little indie nurtures a few simple emotions, then hopes its audience will stick around to share in them. I’m glad I did.

The look of buried terror and resentment in Hawke's eyes tells the deeper story. Still, Adopt a Highway wanders ("Ella" is just the first chapter) and the redemption narrative isn't so much heavy-handed as it is super-imposed.

Adopt A Highway seems as confused as its lead character, wandering around and never quite figuring out what story it wants to tell.

Marshall-Green is just finding his way, and his debut is very much a first film. ... Modest and unfussy, “Adopt a Highway” fails to ground its fable-esque qualities in a deeper bedrock of emotional truth, but its best moments offer a tender glimpse at what people do with several decades of pent-up resentment.

It’s easy to admire Green’s decision to tell a personal story that came from the heart, but the end result is, unfortunately, something a little flat, unremarkable and it’s only Ethan Hawke’s terrifically empathetic performance that makes this long and listless journey feel like it’s a road worth taking.

Despite the film's choppy and tonally dissonant storytelling ... Hawke’s performance quite literally carries the movie.

Marshall-Green’s directorial debut is an intriguing story centered on a flawed protagonist, and with more polishing in the second half of the film it could have really sailed.

Viewed charitably, Logan Marshall-Green’s sketchy protagonist and vague atmosphere are meant to achieve the effect of a parable.