Themes: Runaways, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Flight of the Innocent
Main Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Brooke Shields, Amanda Plummer, Wolfgang Bodison, Dan Hedaya
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In this postmodern exploitation flick loosely based on "Little Red Riding Hood," the uneducated daughter of a drug-addicted prostitute flees the foster-care system in search of her long-lost grandmother but meets up instead with a serial killer. Vanessa (Reese Witherspoon), a nearly illiterate firebug and serial shoplifter, desperately clings to normalcy even though her mother turns tricks, does drugs, and manages to ignore the fact that the girl's stepfather Michael T. Weiss has been abusing her for years. When both of her parents get arrested, Vanessa steals the car of her family-services caseworker (Conchata Ferrell) and heads up Interstate 5 in search of her paternal grandmother, who's never met her. Car problems force her to accept a ride from Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland), a youth counselor who uses charm and sympathy to get the girl to open up. Confessing the sordid details of her childhood to Bob, Vanessa is shocked when he suddenly declares that she's one of the "garbage people" and that he plans to murder her and have sex with her corpse. Bob, it turns out, is the "I-5 Murderer," who's been slaughtering young prostitutes in the Los Angeles area. Thanks to a gun borrowed from her fiancé, Vanessa manages to turn the tables on Bob, shooting him repeatedly and leaving him for dead. He survives, Vanessa is arrested, and the two meet up again in court -- with her unrepentant, even though the police disbelieve her story, him flanked by his prim wife (Brooke Shields) and the righteous indignation of the American legal system. Locked up in the juvie for psychological evaluation, Vanessa gets in touch with her wild side and eventually escapes, heading off to her fateful meeting with grandma. Although Freeway was originally filmed for HBO, vigorously positive critical response eventually earned it a theatrical release. Alanna Ubach, who portrays Vanessa's nemesis/accomplice Mesquita, would go on to appear with Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. Freeway also features two Clueless alumni: Dan Hedaya, as a police detective, and Brittany Murphy, as the disfigured lesbian who befriends Vanessa in lock-up. Michael T. Weiss, who previously appeared in gay indie Jeffrey, appears in both Freeway and its sequel, Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Although it's framed as a contemporary retelling of Little Red Riding Hood -- replete with a trip to grandma's house, a villain named Wolverton, and an opening-credit montage of fairy tale drawings -- Freeway is actually a smart, trashy, and hilarious pastiche of the road movie, the women-in-prison flick, and The Jerry Springer Show. The directorial debut of Shrunken Heads and Guncrazy scribe Matthew Bright, the film piles up all manner of B-movie subject matter and then unleashes a future A-list actress on it. Budding star Reese Witherspoon displays her fierce intelligence in the film's very first scene as her uneducated but independent character struggles to read a simple sentence from the blackboard of her remedial English classroom. As the meaning of the words she's sounding out begins to dawn on Vanessa, Witherspoon's malleable pixie face registers confusion, then shock, then joy, then finally frustration as she realizes there's one more word to figure out. All of this takes about three seconds, but the actress then proceeds to enliven the next 100 or so minutes with the same mixture of nascent intelligence, stubborn pride, and sudden joy. Of course, the joys are short-lived in a film that finds Witherspoon's character diddled with by her stepfather, abandoned by her junkie whore of a mother, almost murdered and defiled by a psychopath, and thrown into a vile, corrupt juvenile detention center. The genius of Freeway is that it manages to milk such material for thrills and laughs while at the same time elevating Vanessa from trailer-trash joke to complex, fully realized heroine. Along the way, the film also slyly critiques America's woefully ineffective correctional and family services infrastructure and paints a desperate picture of the urban underclass. The balance between such serious issues and all-out entertainment, however, skews forcefully toward the latter. After an arch but relatively realistic first act, Bright steers his material into John Waters territory; only Witherspoon's utter conviction compensates for such unevenness in tone. Of course, there are also a number of fine supporting turns from performers as diverse as Conchata Ferrell, Amanda Plummer, Dan Hedaya, and Wolfgang Bodison. Kiefer Sutherland makes a typically shrewd villain, while Clueless co-star Brittany Murphy invests her over-the-top reform school girl with equal amounts of sweetness and grotesquerie. Bright's sort-of sequel, Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby, would stray way too far into trash-for-its-own-sake excess, but the original Freeway stands up as perhaps the most subversive exploitation flick of the '90s. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Bokeem Woodbine - Chopper; Brittany Murphy - Rhonda; Michael T. Weiss - Larry; Julie Araskog - Prosecutor; Susan Barnes - Mrs. Cullins; Conchata Ferrell - Mrs. Sheets; Lorna Raver Johnson - Judge; Sidney Lassick - Woody Wilson; Kathleen Marshall - ER Nurse; Michael Merrins - Guard; Ben Meyerson - Cop at Truckstop; Louis Mustillo - Vanessa's Attorney; Chris Renna - Doctor; Paul Perri - Cop #1; Leanna Creel - Twin #2; Monica Creel - Twin #1; Craig Barnett - Cop #3; Michael Kaufman - Trick; Ria Pavia - Waitress; Melinda Ramos Renna - Female Anchor; Alanna Ubach - Mesquita; Guillermo Diaz - Flacco; Kitty Fox - Grandma; David Andriole - Truck Driver; Tara Subkoff - Sharon; Roberta Hanley - Teacher; Robert Peters - Undercover Cop; Manny Rodriguez - Marshall; G. Eric Miles - Cop #4; Nico Petrakis - Girl Gang Member; Annette Helde - Lady Cop; Theodore Garcia - Little Gumby; Christine Mourad - News Reporter; Spantaneeus Xtasty - Staff Member
Credit
Tim Drury - Boom Operator, Mary Vernieu - Casting, Steven J Venezia - Consultant/advisor, Adam Merims - Co-producer, Marc Ezralow - Co-producer, Merrie Lawson - Costume Designer, T. Bird - First Assistant Director, Matthew Bright - Director, Maysie Hoy - Editor, Oliver Stone - Executive Producer, Dan Halsted - Executive Producer, Julie Hannum - Location Manager, Jeff P. Rubinstein - Location Manager, Danny Elfman - Composer (Music Score), Tito Larriva - Composer (Music Score), Gerry Gershman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Alicia Rose - Songwriter, Miss Murgatroid - Songwriter, Brad Boles - Makeup, John Carl Buechler - Makeup Special Effects, David Barrett - Makeup Special Effects, John Foster - Makeup Special Effects, Pam Warner - Production Designer, John Thomas - Cinematographer, Richard Rutowski - Producer, Brad Wyman - Producer, Chris Hanley - Producer, Ed White - Sound/Sound Designer, Troy M. Gilbert - Stunts, Tom Harper - Stunts, Jill Stokesberry - Stunts, Nancy Thurston - Stunts, Frank Hildebrand - Unit Production Manager, Matthew Bright - Screenwriter, Don Gooch - Sound Effects Editor, Phil Cohen - First Assistant Camera, Ali Farboud - Gaffer, Alan M. Rowe - Gaffer, Kelly Jones - Grip, David Grant Wright - Grip, John Joseph Minardi - Key Grip, Bruce Greenspan - Music Editor, Mark Boccaccio - Music Editor, Teresa Cintron - Post Production Coordinator, Linda Pallin - Post Production Supervisor, Theresa Marth - Production Coordinator, Barbara Benz - Properties Master, Paul Ratajczak - Re-Recording Mixer, Kurt Kassulke - Re-Recording Mixer, J.S. Shoe - Script Supervisor, Athena Alexander - Second Assistant Director, Vincent Montefusco - Special Effects Coordinator, Nicola Goode - Still Photographer, Lesa-Ann Wyman - Still Photographer, Annette Benson - Additional Casting, Jeremy Kinser - Additional Casting, Jennifer Wittlinger - Assistant Production Coordinator, Keith Morgan - Best Boy Electric, Alyssa Weisberg - Casting Associate, Nadine Haders - Costumes Supervisor, Dorian Cheah - Dialogue Editor, Nelson Elwell - Dolly Grip, Jenifer Galvez - Electrician, Phillip C. Jordan - Electrician, Don Spiro - Electrician, Danielle Frankl - First Assistant Accountant, Melissa Gearhart - First Assistant Editor, John Post - Foley Artist, Paul Holzborn - Foley Artist, Elisabeth Fry - Key Hairstylist, Elisabeth Fry - Key Make-up, Beth Emerson - Leadman, Alicia Rivera Frankl - Production Accountant, Christopher Patak - Second Assistant Camera, Chad Rosen - Second Second Assistant Director, Andy Friend - Storyboard Artist, Mitchell Bergman - Transportation Coordinator, Caitlin Blue - Set Decorator, Mark Linden - ADR Supervisor, Al Decker - ADR Supervisor, Arman Boyles - Foley Recordist, Beecher Tomlinson - Special Effects Foreman, Dan Perri - Title Design
Vanessa Lutz is a poor, illiterate teenage girl living in the slums of Los Angeles. After her mother is arrested in a prostitution sting, she runs away with a stolen car from her social worker guardian to stay with her grandmother in Stockton. Bob Wolverton, a serial killer and rapist known as "the I-5 killer", picks her up after her car breaks down, and promises to take her to her grandmother's house. (The scenes that take place on the northbound I-5 freeway were filmed on Interstate 5.)
Bob manipulates Vanessa into confessing to him the details of her painfully dysfunctional life, including a prostitute mother and a sexually abusive stepfather. (At one point, Vanessa shows Bob a photo she keeps in her wallet of her biological father. The photo used is actually a picture of mass murdererRichard Speck.) Bob eventually reveals his true nature and tries to kill Vanessa. The tables are turned, however, as Vanessa eventually shoots him several times and escapes.
Vanessa is quickly arrested and questioned by two detectives who write her off as a carjacker, even though she insists Bob had tried to kill her and had told her about his other murders. Bob survives, but the bullet wounds have left him severely handicapped, costing him an eye and disfiguring his face. Vanessa is put on trial, with everyone believing (at first) that Bob is the innocent victim he claims to be. Vanessa goes to prison, while Bob and his socialite wife, who knows nothing of his crimes, are treated like heroes.
Scared at first, Vanessa eventually makes friends in prison, including a heroin-addicted lesbian and a Hispanic gang leader, who help her escape.
Meanwhile, the detectives reexamine the evidence, and begin to suspect that Vanessa was telling the truth. They then search Wolverton's home, where they find violent pornography in the locked shed adjacent to the house. Confronted at last with what her husband really is, Wolverton's wife commits suicide, after mumbling disbelief that he had hidden child pornography from her. Arriving home at just that moment to find police cars outside his house, Wolverton panics and flees to Vanessa's grandmother's house. (In his earlier encounter with Vanessa, he had apparently obtained a photo of the grandmother, with her address written on the back.)
While posing as a prostitute, Vanessa steals a car from a prospective customer, and drives to her grandmother's house (lacking the reed basket that she had with her earlier in the story). Vanessa finds her grandmother dead and Wolverton waiting for her with a gun. After a struggle, Vanessa kills him. The detectives, who wait outside during the gunfire, eventually enter and appear to exonerate Vanessa.
The film was received positively by most critics, who lauded the film's hard-edged satire and performances.
Film critic Roger Ebert gave Freeway three and a half stars out of four and stated, "like it or hate it (or both), you have to admire its skill, and the over-the-top virtuosity of Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland."
Joe Baltake of the Sacramento Bee gave Freeway four stars out of four and called it "a wild, audacious drive-in attraction that takes the 'high' from 'highbrow' and the 'low' from 'lowdown' and shakes them up".
Mark LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave Freeway four stars out of four and said that it was "rude in the way the truth is rude -- only funnier".
It received "Two Thumbs Up" on Siskel & Ebert. Ebert stated that Witherspoon's performance was "great" and said "Kiefer Sutherland balances it with a truly inspired villain". He also said how the film was "filled with fine acting". He ended by describing it as "compulsively watchable" and noted that Witherspoon's performance promised an exciting career. Gene Siskel agreed completely with Ebert and commented on how the performances it hits the right notes. The only flaw they noted about the film was that it was "too cute" sometimes, but stated that it was a "good film".
Censorship History
The film originally received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA due to graphic language.[2] It was trimmed to obtain an R rating, with the censored version being released theatrically and on VHS/DVD.
The US R-rated version of Freeway was initially refused classification by the Australian OFLC. Two scenes were removed - explicit sexually abusive dialogue between Bob and Vanessa during the car trip on the I-5, and a cutaway shot of Vanessa's dead grandmother towards the end of the film - before the film was classified R18+.
The UK (Region-2) 18 certificate version of Freeway is only 98 minutes long versus the 102 minute US (Region-1) R-rated version.
