Title from Pig Pile last night means no more board games. I may not have work today but my dad is staying at my place and finding time for this may be difficult. He’s in the shower. Let’s bang some of this out. This film will also try and solve racism, but in a terrible Gran Torino style.
Pothole
Title card is displayed on a black screen as we hear cars going by. We start to hear the scraping of metal and clanks of them hitting potholes. An old grizzled man, Franklin, awakens in his bed to the noise. He looks annoyed as he slowly gets himself up and dressed. His house is tidy but bland. He sits down to make a phone call and the 311 operator, Derek, recognizes his voice. They chat as he complains again about the pothole as he does every morning. The two seem to have a friendship.
Franklin sits down and puts a war movie into a VHS player and sits with his coffee. He hears a more louder than usual clank and the screeching of tires. He goes to a window and sees a young Mexican woman, Maria, standing next to her car looking down at a flat tire. He grumbles something racist and head to refill his coffee. Loud Spanish speaking and the sounds of a playing child, Maria’s son Juan, bombard him.
Franklin goes outside onto his porch to see what is happening and Juan is running about while Maria struggles with a jack and spare from her trunk. Franklin seems annoyed and scrambles frantically when Maria notices him watching. She walks over to his porch to ask to use his phone. She doesn’t have AAA and on the phone with Juan’s father he says he can’t come and help. He sounds like a real piece of shit.
Franklin, feeling bad, heads outside to help them. Juan tries to start up conversation with him but he is cranky. Maria promises to come back and find a way to repay him and Franklin seems uninterested. Maria and Juan stop by the next day with a plate food which Franklin complains about how it’s probably too spicy. He takes it and ends up enjoying it while watching Jeopardy later.
He calls Derek the next morning and they talk some more and he actually mentions Maria. Derek jokes about how attractive she was or wasn’t. Maria and Juan interrupt their conversation at the door with more food. Franklin tries to tell her she doesn’t owe him anything but she insists. A friendship starts to form and Franklin begins to look forward to their visits and tells Derek more and more about them.
One day Franklin is awakened not by the cars but Maria and Juan at the door. He seems confused. Outside a good-looking man is fixing the pot hole himself. He stops for a moment and introduces himself as Derek. Derek and Maria hit it off. Franklin actually eggs them on to go get lunch together and offers to watch Juan. Franklin tells Juan more about himself and we learn about his dead wife and career in the military. Derek and Maria return from lunch looking like they had a great time.
Juan’s father ends up. The four end up striking up a friendship and continue to see each other until Juan’s father shows up angry over something or other. He tries to take Juan and Maria away and ends up punching Derek. Franklin steps in and lays him out. The excitement proved too much for his heart though and he is rushed to the hospital.
His three friends surround him to comfort him but he dies. Smile on his face though. We cut ahead to them cleaning out Franklin’s house when a lawyer comes to the door. He says he is looking for Juan. Franklin changed his will leaving the house and a sizable savings to the boy.