Review of Highway

Introduction

The Road Movie is a Hollywood institution. It may even be the modern equivalent to a pilgrimage. One or more protagonists are for some reason or another required to be leaving town and to keep on moving. On the way to his or her often-undefined destination, they will encounter dangerous situations, pick up attractive hitchhikers, break several laws and there will be a violent and explosive climax. Through these trials and tribulations, they will have learnt something about themselves and come out the experience a changed person. Variations of this formula have been entertaining audiences for decades, and while I haven`t been a particular fan, I have enjoyed the occasional road movie and Kalifornia springs immediately to mind. What drew me to Highway was the time it was set. April 1994 to be precise. The protagonists of this movie begin their drug fuelled pilgrimage to Seattle just when Kurt Kobain has killed himself and end up involved in the public outpouring of grief that occurred at that time.

Jack, the so called "God of F**k" is caught in a compromising situation with his employer`s wife. Narrowly escaping a bullet from the enraged Burt Miranda, Jack goes to crow about his audacity to his best friend, Pilot. Pilot listens to his tale of prowess, but reminds him of how tenacious Miranda is and advises him to leave Las Vegas and disappear. Jack, realising the depth of his trouble decides to do just that, but drags Pilot along for the ride. Initially reluctant, Pilot persuades Jack to head for Seattle, and so begins an adventurous road trip, where on the run from "Miranda`s Pandas" they will encounter the Alligator Boy, and pick up the odd hitchhiker, Johnny the Fox and of course a damsel in distress, Cassie.

Video

The picture on this disc is given a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. A very recent film, the picture is very clear and pin sharp with strong colours throughout. While the transfer can`t be faulted, I can`t say the same for James Cox`s direction. Many films these days have a sort of visual signature, a style that you can point to as indicative of the director. Cox has tried to use every trick in the book. The protagonist`s story is told with liberal additions of over exposed flashback sequences. The younger versions incongruously have the same hairstyles. When he tries to emphasise a character, he`ll resort to a slow motion pan, really noticeable when Cassie is introduced and whenever the dialogue gets frenetic we get plenty of jump cuts. This mish-mash of styles is distracting from the story and to the overall detriment of the film. This being a road movie, the scenes are nice and expansive, with some pretty scenery to look at.

Audio

The sound is a Dolby 2.0 Surround track. The music is by Rich Robinson (of the Black Crowes) as credited in the film. Now I`ll be honest and say that this isn`t the kind of music that I usually listen to, but the sheer number of tracks on the soundtrack is impressive. It suits the film well and gives it a style of its own. The surround is used occasionally, and the dialogue is mostly clear. I did notice a blip in the sound about an hour or so in, but that may have just been the review disc.

Features

Trailer. That is the extra, but this is what isn`t on the disc. There are no subtitles, no chapter selection screen, no audio set up screen. In fact when you put the disc in, you are presented with a static menu with two options, play movie or play trailer. There are 10 chapter breaks in the film, but you`ll have to access them directly from your remote.

Conclusion

A fairly good premise is wasted here, as Highway is a film that exhibits more style over substance. The characters are uninvolving and their particular journeys of self-discovery are often quite trivial. Jared Leto stars as Jack whose indiscretion prompts the odyssey. His particular problem is a lack of satisfactory sexual climax. He can go for hours without anything happening. I`m sure your hearts bleed as much as mine. Selma Blair as Cassie is the particular damsel that our heroes pick up on their way North and while she is great to look at, her character does very little and is a little too normal for a road movie. John C. McGinley is woefully miscast as the aging hippy turned drug dealer, Johnny the Fox whom they encounter. Buried under a head of dreadlocks, he looks like a poor man`s version of Gary Oldman`s character from True Romance. That leaves the character of Pilot to carry the film. Played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Pilot is the most interesting of the characters. His relationship with his best friend Jack, and his confused reactions to Jack`s exploits reveals a complex side to his character. You feel that he has most to gain from his journey to Seattle as he has engineered the whole thing. Unfortunately, even his particular storyline peters out and the conclusion is just as uninvolving as it is for the other characters. I mustn`t forget to mention Jeremy Piven. He has a brief role as drug dealer Scawldy and his performance is the worst thing I have seen in some time. His speed fuelled soliloquy, is just the most pathetic piece of acting in this film and deserves some kind of award.

The script doesn`t help the actors. The story starts of well, but just fades away half an hour from the end. The dialogue is execrable with both Jack and Pilot speaking in some form of dudespeak that died out with Bill and Ted. A big selling point is the Kurt Kobain tie in, but it isn`t at all relevant to the story and is there mainly as background noise. The events that occur in the movie aren`t of sufficient import to get me to care about the characters. There is no suspense or tension and never any pace. I tried to get involved in the film but the empty story and hard-to-like characters were just the nail in the coffin of the corpse that is a road movie that doesn`t actually go anywhere.