Freeway (1996 film)

Freeway is a 1996 American crime film written and directed by Matthew Bright and starring Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon and Brooke Shields. The film's plot resembles the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood".

Plot
Vanessa Lutz is a poor, illiterate teenage girl living south of Los Angeles. Her mother, Ramona, is arrested in a prostitution sting and her step-father, Larry, is taken into custody on drug and child abuse charges. Social worker Mrs. Sheets comes to take Vanessa away, but Vanessa handcuffs her ankle to a bed and runs away. She takes her parents' run-down car and plans to go to her grandmother in Stockton. Along the way, Vanessa stops to see her boyfriend Chopper Wood, a local gang member, to tell him about her trip and he gives her a gun to sell upon arriving at her destination. Minutes after Vanessa leaves, Chopper is killed in a drive-by shooting by rival gang members. Later, Bob Wolverton, a counselor at a school for boys with emotional problems, picks her up after her car breaks down and offers to take her as far as Los Angeles, where he is headed.

Over the long drive, Vanessa comes to trust Bob, and confesses to him the details of her painfully dysfunctional life, including being sexually abused by her stepfather. At one point, Vanessa shows Bob a photo she keeps in her wallet of her biological father (whose picture, unbeknownst to Vanessa, is of mass murderer Richard Speck). That evening, Bob attacks Vanessa and reveals that he is a serial killer of young girls – known in the press as the "I-5 Killer". He tries to kill Vanessa when she refuses to give in to him. The tables are turned, however, as Vanessa eventually pulls out her gun and shoots him several times before escaping. She goes to a local restaurant where her blood-stained appearance attracts attention from the patrons and staff.

Leaving the restaurant, Vanessa is arrested and questioned by two police detectives, Mike Breer and Garnet Wallace, who write her off as a carjacker, even though she insists Bob had tried to kill her and had told her about his crimes.

Bob has survived, but the bullet wounds have left him severely handicapped and disfigured. Vanessa is put on trial, with everyone believing that Bob is the innocent victim he claims to be since he has no criminal record, while Vanessa has a long record and is a veteran of juvenile homes. Vanessa goes to prison, while Bob and his socialite wife Mimi, who knows nothing of his crimes, are treated like heroes.

Initially scared, Vanessa makes friends in prison that include a heroin-addicted lesbian named Rhonda and a brutal Hispanic gang leader named Mesquita. Vanessa plots to escape to continue on to visit her grandmother. Vanessa learned from her stepfather how to make a crude knife from a toothbrush. Vanessa and Mesquita, escorted by prison guards to a new new maximum security prison, escape; Mesquita kills one. Vanessa and Mesquita part ways - Mesquita to be reunited with her gang.

Breer and Wallace find when re-examining evidence that Vanessa had told the truth. They search Bob's home and find violent child pornography and human remains in a storage shed. Horrified, Mimi runs upstairs and commits suicide. Bob finds the police at his home, and flees to Vanessa's grandmother's place, a trailer park, after finding the address written on a picture of the old woman Vanessa had showed him.

Posing as a prostitute, Vanessa steals a car from a prospective john and drives to her grandmother's house. Vanessa finds Bob in bed wearing her grandmother's nightgown and nightcap with the covers pulled up to his nose. Bob reveals himself and Vanessa sees her grandmother's body on the floor. A struggle ensues, culminating in Vanessa strangling Bob. Breer and Wallace arrive and find the bodies of Bob and Vanessa's grandmother. Outside, Vanessa sits in a chair, near her breaking point, when she looks up and asks the detectives if they have a cigarette. They smile, and Vanessa responds in kind.

Cast

 * Kiefer Sutherland as Bob Wolverton
 * Reese Witherspoon as Vanessa Lutz
 * Wolfgang Bodison as Detective Mike Breer
 * Dan Hedaya as Detective Garnet Wallace
 * Amanda Plummer as Ramona Lutz
 * Brooke Shields as Mimi Wolverton
 * Michael T. Weiss as Larry
 * Bokeem Woodbine as Chopper Wood
 * Guillermo Díaz as Flacco
 * Brittany Murphy as Rhonda
 * Alanna Ubach as Mesquita
 * Susan Barnes as Mrs. Cullins
 * Conchata Ferrell as Mrs. Sheets
 * Tara Subkoff as Sharon
 * Julie Araskog as Prosecutor
 * Lorna Raver as Judge
 * Paul Perri as Cop #1

Critical reception
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." It received "Two Thumbs Up" on Siskel and Ebert At the Movies. 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". Mick 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&mdash;only funnier". Margaret A. McGurk wrote for The Cincinnati Enquirer that "I didn't particularly want to like Freeway, but I couldn't help myself. Reese Witherspoon made me."

As of June 2019, Freeway holds a rating of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.45/10. Its consensus reads: "A modern update on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, Freeway is an audacious black comedy with a star-making performance from the young Reese Witherspoon."

Sequel
A sequel titled Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby was released in 1999, but was largely disregarded and released direct-to-video.