Freeway is Matthew Bright’s version of the 17th-century European fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood.” Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon), a 15-year-old tough-minded, loudmouthed, illiterate girl, lives in a poor Los Angeles neighborhood with her mother Ramona (Amanda Plummer) and stepfather Larry (Michael T. Weiss). When Ramona and Larry are both hauled into custody on prostitution, drug, and child abuse charges, Vanessa is left vulnerable and at risk of being returned to a foster home. To avoid being taken away by a social worker named Mrs. Sheets (Conchata Ferrell), Vanessa handcuffs her to bed and steals her car. She hopes to make her way to Stockton and live with her grandmother. Meanwhile, reports in the media detail the search for the “I-5 killer,” a serial killer who preys on young prostitutes and kills them on the interstate (I-5) freeway. Vanessa’s car breaks down on the Freeway en route to Stockton, and a man named Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland) pulls over to offer her a ride, to which she naively agrees. Bob is a counselor at a school for boys with emotional problems and becomes interested in Vanessa’s case. She begins to open up to him about her troubled life, but their journey takes a dramatic turn halfway through the film when she suspects he is the I-5 killer, after which the story takes surprising and unexpected turns.
Matthew Bright’s screenplay does a fantastic job of fleshing out the lead characters. Initially, Bob comes across as a charming, sympathetic listener who takes an honest interest in Vanessa’s problems. He treats her to a lovely dinner at a fancy restaurant, followed by a stroll, and manages to acquire her absolute faith and trust, allowing her to confide in him about everything. But suddenly, he begins acting oddly and asking her bizarre questions, and in the space of a single scene, he goes from being a genuinely decent guy to a freak. With Bright’s precise timing in cutting to Bob’s closeup, combined with Sutherland’s masterful tonal shift in emotional intensity, the scene becomes tense and unsettling.
I appreciated Bright’s choice to reveal Vanessa’s character gradually throughout the film. At first, we only know her as this “white trash” girl with a dysfunctional family of drug addicts. The story progresses to disclose that men have sexually exploited her, including Larry, who forced her to engage in oral sex, to which she agreed without even realizing it constitutes sexual assault and a crime. Then, it turns out that Vanessa has a long history of criminal convictions; she has anger issues and has been convicted multiple times for stealing and arson. These insights into her personality are presented at the right time in the film, making some of her on-screen actions appear less outlandish and entirely justifiable. Apart from being an engaging crime thriller, Freeway also skillfully criticizes the American welfare and legal systems and provides a satirical look at the public’s insatiable appetite for media depictions of serial killers, terrorists, criminals, etc.
The film benefits tremendously from the performances of its lead actors. Kiefer Sutherland’s portrayal of the creepy villain Bob is so convincing that he not only succeeds in manipulating Vanessa but also the viewers. For all my adoration of Reese Witherspoon’s work in films like Election (1999) and Walk the Line (2005), her performance in Freeway remains my favorite. She exudes fierceness and intensity in her portrayal of Vanessa, enabling us to see things from her perspective without eliciting pity. Her character walks a fine line between being a rebel and being mentally unstable, yet she never crosses it or turns Vanessa into a psychotic person.
Freeway movie links: IMDB, Wikipedia
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