I was introduced to this movie by a friend who kept rudely interrupting our telephone conversation to comment on a movie she was watching. Throughout our conversation, she repeatedly made comments like, "Oh my gosh - this is a CRAZY movie!" . . ."You won't BELIEVE what just happened in this movie I'm watching . . .". When I finally realized that our conversation was going nowhere, I decided to ask about the movie. Once my friend described some of the mayhem, I decided to check it out for myself.

You see, "Freeway" was actually released on HBO *before* it was released in general theatres. The reaction to the film was so overwhelming that the producers decided to take it to the big screen. When they did, I was first in line.

"Little Red Riding Hood" serves as a loose allegory for this story, but this is not your average fairy tale. I this movie Little red Riding Hood would be Vanessa, played brilliantly by Reese Witherspoon. Vanessa is a complex character who is extremely childlike, on the one hand, and very sophisticated and street-smart on the other. As the child of a drug-using, prostitute mother and a crack-smoking, child molesting step-father, it's safe to assume that Vanessa straddles the fence between young child and sassy, streetwise woman because she had to grow up too quickly in order to survive. In fact, when Vanessa comes home from school one day (where, at the age of 15, she is still learning to read), she finds her mother on the corner, prostituting herself and her stepfather waiting to try to molest her at home. When the undercover cops bust Vanessa's mom (in a hilarious scene where they hog tie the mother), they take the stepfather away, too, for violating his parole. Vanessa decides that rather than go back with "Miss Sheets," the foster care provider, she will run away to see her grandmother (whom she has never met).

Vanessa's plight sounds bleak - and it is - but through the use of a well-written script, solid directing and excellent acting, this movie is actually HILARIOUS! Part of what makes it so funny is the idea that anyone came up with the various scenarios - it is the kind of laughter where part of you feels bad about laughing, but you just can't help yourself. This is dark comedy at its best.

As Vanessa goes along her merry way, in her parents' old car, her car breaks down and, who comes along but . . . Bob. Bob (played by Kiefer Sutherland) seems like a nice man and offers to give Vanessa a lift. Bob portrays himself as a guidance counselor for boys and tells Vanessa she might benefit from some impromptu counseling. The childlike side of Vanessa takes over and she confides in Bob - about past abuse by her foster parents, the sexual molestation by her stepfather, her mother's prostitution and her own feelings of insecurity and anxiety. When Bob tells her that she must release these feelings or risk being overcome with anguish, Vanessa says, "Oh Bob, I'm so anguished, I don't know what to do."

Bob turns out not to be what he appears, however, so the street smart Vanessa takes over (although the child side reappears during this sequence, momentarily, when Bob calls Vanessa's mother all sorts of vicious names, Vanessa says something back, then Bob punches Vanessa in the face and Vanessa then lifts her head and says, "What? Oh, you can talk about my mama but I can't talk about yours"?). Vanessa tells Bob he'd better accept Jesus as his Lord and Saviour and proceeds to serve her own form of justice (I won't say what she does).

The next chapter of the movie occurs with Vanessa in jail. One of the funniest scenes in the movie occurs when the street smart Vanessa beats the pants off a rude police officer (who is twice her size) during their interrogation of her. Over and over, we see that Vanessa can be very sweet until someone crosses her - then, there's a price to pay! Vanessa has to defend herself in jail, eventually making friends, which comes in handy as she makes a plan to get out of there and somehow see her grandmother.

When Vanessa finally ends her quest to get to "grandmother's house" (actually, it's a trailer), she, of course, encounters a surprise when she arrives.

Brooke Shields makes a cameo appearance as Bob's wife. Oh, by the way, "Freeway 2" is a completely different movie, with a different cast, etc. - don't see it!

I highly recommend "Freeway" as a part of anyone's video or DVD collection.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age