Film Reviews

Crossroads

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Anson Mount
• Details: US / 93 mins / (12PG)

Three childhood friends, Lucy (Spears), Kit (Saldana) and the pregnant Mimi (Manning) reunite on their prom night to see if wishes they made some ten years earlier actually came true. Realising that nothing in their young lives has turned out as they might have hoped, the trio bum lifts to LA from musician Ben (Mount) and try to find their own way in this crazy mixed up world. Yawn.
An insipid road movie, Crossroads is a confused enterprise. While it's obvious that the picture was designed as a vehicle for Spears, screenwriter Shonda Rhimes and director Davis seem intent on introducing something murkier to the mix. Unfortunately, though, the darker elements of the story - teenage pregnancy and date rape - are never fully developed and/or tied up too neatly to be believable. Needless to say, the indomitable Miss Spears warbles at every available opportunity and the character she plays appears to have no flaws whatsoever. Her two co-stars, Taryn Manning and Zoe Saldana, are given slightly meatier parts, but even then, their characters are no more two dimensional stereotypes.

Review by Garreth Murphy