CHRIS HEMSWORTH: A ROAD TRIP TO REMEMBER

Australia/US, 2025, 52 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Tom Barbor-Might.

The road trip of the title is a journey back into the past of Chris Hemsworth’s father, Craig Hemsworth, with incipient Alzheimers.

Chris Hemsworth is able to use his status and influence to finance this beautifully made documentary, his visit to his father, a genial man, Craig Hemsworth, who spent time in the Northern Territory in the 1980s, in a remote town, working with the indigenous men in capturing wild bulls. Supported by his wife, it was a significant time for Chris, born in 1983, and the family living in this territory setting.

In the 1990s, the family moved to Melbourne, Craig Hemsworth working in child protection. While Chris is at the centre of the film with his father, his mother, Leonie, makes many appearances and interview comments. It would have been interesting to have contributions from his two brothers, actors Luke and Liam Hemsworth.

Chris Hemsworth has a discussion with an expert on Alzheimer’s and the brain, Suraj Samtani, seeing him in conversation with Chris but also speaking directly to camera, especially with diagrams and interesting explanations of the structure of the brain, its activity, brain damage, especially for Alzheimer’s and the possible therapies to keep the ageing person’s brain active, personality alive, revisiting the past and memories, engaging in conversations.

However, it is clear from some of the discussions that the Alzheimer’s is advancing. Eventually, Chris Hemsworth does ask his father what he might fear, how he sees the future, the father not wanting to be a burden as he becomes more disabled.

The advantage of being a star celebrity is that Chris Hemsworth was able to organise the family home in Melbourne where they lived in the 1990s to be furnished and redecorated as it was at the time, getting his father to go back and relive remember those times.

Hemsworth rode motorbikes in the past, raising them, and he Chris ride through the Northern Territory outback, and great joy in rediscovering his indigenous friends from many decades earlier, a wonderful reunion.

As with his film roles, even Thor, Chris Hemsworth has a comfortable and easy screen presence and is able to take the audience with him. His father also has great charm and presence and elicits a great deal of audience interest, empathy as well as sympathy for what the future might be for him.

This is a National Geographic production.