"Freeway" is one of those odd movies that comes along when the Director and/or writers cannot decide what it is that they are actually trying to do. More than an allegory, the film makes rather obvious (and often clumsy) allusions to the tale of "Little Red Riding Hood" beginning with the animated opening credits, lest anyone miss the point. Midway through the story, however, the movie switches genres into the "Wild Women in Prison" category, before lurching back to the fairy-tale mandated conclusion at Grandma's. It's surprisingly quite violent and bloody, and deals with some discomforting topics, but amazingly enough, it's not all that bad of a movie. Reese Witherspoon, in what was apparently her first major movie role (this was made in 1996) plays the Red Riding Hood character, with an interesting twist; she is forced to go to Grandma's when her own junkie-prostitute mother, and "overly friendly" stepfather are hauled off to the pokey. On the way she is picked after her own car breaks down on the freeway up by Keifer Sutherland (who was billed as the star) whose character's name is "Bob Wolverton". Enough said there. The movie is made more interesting by some of the other familiar faces which show up along the way. The two detectives on the hunt for the "Freeway Murderer" are played by the fellow who played Alicia Silverstone's father in "Clueless" (among other things) and the guy who played the Black Marine Sergeant Dawson defended by Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men". An unrecognizably chubby and brunette Brittany Murphy (who also had a small part in "Clueless" appears as a lesbian inmate at the women's prison who takes an interest in Reese. Reese, playing a foulmouthed delinquent and part-time teen hooker is very different from the "America's Sweetheart" she now portrays. She is shown to be fierce and resourceful, as well as violent, when necessary. Her very strong Southern accent (very out of place in the Los Angeles setting of the story) betrays her native Tennessee upbringing, and her early years before voice coaching; (although an off hand reference to Texas in the film attempts to address this issue). Brooke Shields is not horrible as Keifer's unknowing wife. It's a harsh film about some harsh issues, but it's also worth a look.
