This is Chris Hartigan's second feature, mainly shot in Reno, Nevada. It's a low key story about Australian native Martin Bonner, a volunteer counselor for a Christian-based group who has a mentoring program to rehabilitate convicts. Ironically, one of the most powerful scenes in the film is right at the beginning, when Bonner and his mentor-supervisor, interview an angry black inmate, to consider him for their program. The impatient, arrogant inmate disparages their attempt to help him and declines to participate.

We're then introduced to another inmate, Travis, who decides to join the Christian group—he's been incarcerated for over ten years for a DWI vehicular manslaughter. Bonner meets with Travis first but informs him that he's just the coordinator for the program, and that he's actually assigned to a regular mentor. Bonner gives Travis his card and tells him to call him anytime if he needs help.

Travis is set up at a motel and has dinner with his regular mentor and his wife. There's a good scene in the church where we get a sense that Travis is not too excited by all the Christian 'devotion'. Later that's confirmed when he has lunch with Bonner and confesses that his mentor's faith has no meaning to him. Bonner reciprocates by confessing that he too, lost 'faith' in the church a couple of years ago, after working for a Christian organization for quite some time.

Bonner is the far better developed character than Travis. Hartigan fleshes out Bonner a bit by depicting his relationship with a daughter and son. The daughter is far away in Maryland, married with child, and Bonner often talks to her on the phone. The son is an artist but never returns his father's phone calls. Finally, the son sends him one of his oil paintings as a present but still never speaks with his father. That's a plot strand that goes nowhere as we never meet the son and no direct conflict between them, is depicted. Similarly, when Bonner goes speed dating and meets a woman, there's no follow up; an opportunity for some additional drama is lost. I did like how Bonner's back story includes mention of his days as a rock musician playing for his band 'Kopyright'. At one point, Bonner puts on an old 8 track tape from his old band, and dances to it while alone at home (the music also plays during the closing credits).

On the other hand, we find out little about Travis, including details about the crime he was incarcerated for, his life in prison as well as his earlier days. Instead, the earlier history is supposed to be filled in with the awkward questions he asks his daughter, who has driven three hours by bus, to meet him for lunch.

This meeting is the central dramatic moment in the film. Travis brings Bonner to the lunch with his daughter on the pretext that she's requested him all along. Bonner soon discovers that it was Travis who wanted Bonner to tag along and the daughter had no prior knowledge that he was coming. Bonner expresses his disappointment with Travis and leaves him to fend for himself. The conversation then deteriorates with Travis only remembering things about his daughter that occurred years ago, which she can't remember herself.

Suddenly Bonner saves the day by returning to the table and acting as ref between the estranged daughter and desperate father. Did Bonner actually get in his car and drive away and then have a change of conscience? Or did he plan it this way, stand outside and give them a few minutes, knowing all along that they needed him to come back and restore some semblance of equilibrium? All Mr. Hartigan wants us to know that ultimately Bonner came back and saved the day.

Now Travis owes Bonner a favor in return. The church group videotapes Travis' testimonial which consists of two short questions, putting minimal pressure on the recalcitrant former inmate. And that's it folks! If you're looking for high stakes, you will not find it here. 'This is Martin Bonner' advertises Travis committing some kind of big 'betrayal'; one might expect some kind of violent incident since it involves a character who is an ex-con. But all it comes down to is a lack of confidence on the ex-inmate's part and a white lie to cover up this lack of confidence.

The film's ace in the hole is Paul Eenhoorn who is excellent as the sturdy program coordinator. Hartigan must be commended for fashioning this low-key drama that keeps your interest to the end. For future efforts, however, he needs to focus more on character development, higher stakes in the plot as well as creating a denouement that doesn't end too abruptly and feels a bit more satisfying than what occurs here.

This fine little flick is a quick drive-by look at or into a brief moment in another persons life.

We never get a full background on any of the characters because the story just starts and then ends. What happens in between is one man, Bonner, driven to help others and never fully knowing if his efforts have actually helped.

And another man,Travis, needing help and not fully knowing if he is capable of meeting its' challenges. He needs help due to his past! His daughter has a brief visit which only accentuates Travis's insecurity.

I'm only giving seven stars because I don't feel enough character was given to Bonner to have just that name in the title. Travis actually plays the major role.

THIS IS MARTIN BONNER focuses on the lives of two misfits trying to adjust to a new life in the desert city of Reno, Navada. Australian émigré Martin (Paul Eenhoorn) tries to adjust to life as a volunteer in a local jail after having experienced a crisis of faith followed by long-term unemployment. Travis Holloway (Richmond Arquette) is released from the same jail, and attempts to forge a new life outside by living in a seedy motel and working as a car park attendant. Both men have grown-up children: Martin communicates mostly by phone, while Travis' daughter Diana (Sam Buchanan) hasn't seen her father since he went to prison twelve years previously. When father and daughter do meet, the conversation remains awkward, to say the least. Chad Hartigan's low-budget drama focuses on the loneliness of the two protagonists' lives as they spend their evenings in nondescript rooms, roam the streets either on foot, in the car or on the bus, and try to connect with people around them. Reno is hardly the place for lonely men to live; the streets are deprived of pedestrians, while cars endlessly shoot by on the interstate highway. The skies are crystal-clear, but the architecture seems to be deliberately designed to shut out as much daylight as possible. Sean McElwee's cinematography sums up the protagonists' lives through a clever use of framing; on several occasions their profiles are seen at the extreme left or right of the frame looking desolately at the landscape stretching endlessly before them. Even when they try to communicate, they are verbally challenged: what is not said is more significant than what is said. The narrative of THIS IS MARTIN BONNER unfolds at a slow pace, but the film remains a penetrating study of life in an impersonal city.