Al and Ash are a pair of rather wonderfully devious salesmen that could easily sell ice to Eskimos.  As it happens they make their living in the Used Car Lot …Diamond Motors…. that they have owned together in California for some years. They are old-school car dealers with a line of patter and double-act routine that seems to successful persuade even the most sceptical customers to part with more money for a car that they find themselves suddenly buying.

The two partners were not always that successful and their failure to shift inventory in the very early days put such financial pressure on them both and was a major contributor to the failure of Al’s marriage. His ex-wife quickly remarried and since then he has only got to see his son occasionally, but today he is heading off to high school to watch him graduate.   He messes up however and gets there too late and misses the whole ceremony, although he nimbly covers up his lateness by spinning a line.  Freddy his son, is just pleased to see his father there anyway, Barbara his ex wife has long stop depending on him, whilst Chick her wealthy up-tight husband is just annoyed by his very presence.

The real shocker comes in the days that follow when Freddy announces that instead of accepting a College place for the Fall, he wants to move in with his Dad, and go work with him as a Salesman on the lot. Barbara goes ballistic but is persuaded by a somewhat bemused Al to let their son go along with this new notion of his as he is convinced that he’ll soon go off the idea once he faces the reality of his new daily routine.

Freddy’s initiation into his father’s life on the lot is both funny and touching, and as his partner Ash also insists on mentoring the young man after work by taking him to play poker, cruise bars and chat up woman, the young man soon blossoms and takes to it all like a duck takes to water. And after his initial fumbling , he actually starts having success selling cars too.   

As the summer winds on Al is enjoying this unexpected second chance to actually get to bond with his son, and for once be able to get to act like a father to him. So much so that when Freddy starts to pick up some of the bad habits of his poker playing cronies, Al realises that they are not a good influence on this very impressionable young man and and sometimes a father has to put his foot down even when it makes him unpopular.

This gentlest of wee comedy dramas is the directing debut of writer Joel Surnow best known for being the co-creator of the Emmy Award Winning TV Series ’24’. It’s the simpliest of stories that is not just full of humor but has a great deal of heart too. With a well-crafted script Surnow has made his well-rounded characters very easy to relate too, and a great opportunity for his  cast to put in some rather lovely performances.  The ever impressive Christopher Meloni as Al is the central key and has a really fluid relationship with both his son Freddy, played by Devon Bostick , and his partner Ash, played by Dean Norris.  Even ex-wife Barbara (Bridget Moynhan) is regretting letting him go.

This is one of those movies that you enjoy much more than you imagine you will at the outset.  Very entertaining and if only buying a car was as much pleasure as this is in real life, then we would all want spend a lot of our time down on this Lot.

★★★★★★★★