Review by Dan Taylor
This
one ended up on the list thanks to our continual
Brittany Murphy (CHERRY
FALLS), um, fixation. I've found that
obsession is such an ugly word, and defense
attorneys have a hard time explaining it
in a court of law.
Kidding…
Anyway, if you saw the recent
Maxim cover story on Ms. Murphy – an
ER fave since her turn in the underrated
actioner DRIVE
– you can sympathize. Not your run-of-the-mill
teen starlet, Murphy has an impressive acting
range to match her blazing sex appeal. Unfortunately,
she's only in this modern take on Little
Red Riding Hood for a few minutes, but even
then she still makes an impression as a
scarred, horny reformatory inmate.
Instead, this one is Reese
Witherspoon's show from start to finish.
She stars as Vanessa Lutz, a piece of poor
white trash whose Momma (Amanda Plummer)
gets pinched turning tricks while her crack-smoking
stepdaddy (TV's 'The Pretender') puts the
moves on her in their motel bedroom. With
Momma and "Daddy" on their way
to the pokey, Vanessa ditches the woman
from child services, grabs a gun from her
boyfriend (Bokeem Woodbine), and heads on
out to see Grandma (Kitty Fox) at her trailer
park home.
Things don't go the way they
planned and the next thing you know she's
fending off Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland),
a harmless-looking youth counselor who just
might be a notorious serial killer.
Honestly, to say much more
about FREEWAY would be to give away too
many of its violent, funny twists and turns.
Writer/director Matthew Bright's script
is chock full of whacked-out characters,
disturbing visuals (the scene of a post-attack
Sutherland being wheeled into court by wife
Brooke Shields is a thing to behold), and
jarring mood swings that'll make you sit
up and take notice.
And Witherspoon, who recently
found herself at the top of the summer box
office heap thanks to LEGALLY BLONDE, continues
to get high marks in our book. This tough-talking
trailer-park gal is a far cry from her role
as Tracy Flick in ELECTION, but it comes
off as no less genuine.
