Review: Cas & Dylan

Isn’t it odd how few road trips in cinema are undertaken by two people of the same weight, age, height and temperament? That’s the thing about drama, I suppose. Anyway, the latest addition to the genre continues the tradition by putting a young, free-spirited woman and an elderly, grumpy man into the same mustard VW Beetle. He has just been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. She is suffering from advanced Manic Pixie Dream Girl Syndrome. You know how such things go. They bicker appallingly. Eventually, he persuades her to take a bit more responsibility and she persuades him to get in touch with his emotions.

There's nothing new in this Canadian film. But the interactions between the excellent Tatiana Maslany and the great Richard Dreyfuss are so delicious that Cass & Dylan proves impossible to resist. The older actor's famous cynical chuckle is used to mordant effect as he casts eyes to heaven along every stretch of the highway. "How do I know you're not going to kill me?" she asks nervously early on. "Because I would have done that already. Definitely," he replies.

Former heart-throb Jason Priestley, making his feature debut as director, keeps the banter ticking along nicely as the bug transports us to a sentimental – but genuinely touching – conclusion.