Crossroads
Review by David Bjerre
Genre: GirlieTalk
Keywords:
Road movie, BFF, Karaoke contest
Did you know that...
Britney is not the only actress in this film with a recording career. Taryn Manning is in the band Boomkat with her brother, and she actually gets to sing along to 10 seconds from one of her own songs in this film.
INTRODUCTION
Jump into a time capsule with me. In this place time froze in mid-2001. Before the world went awry, and Britney did too. Remember that time? Britney is working on her third studio album, she's shooting her first film, and everybody is wondering just how far this girl is going to take it. The sky is the limit...
THE STORY
In the middle of the night three young girls bury a box full of memories and hopes for the future. They decide to dig up the box at the stroke of midnight on the day of their high school graduation, and they vow to be best friends forever.
Eight years later they're anything but.
Lucy is the squeaky clean valedictorian, who always studied hard, but never had any fun. Kit is the snooty prom queen, who never seems perfect enough for her mother. And finally there's Mimi, the trailer trash outcast who's gotten herself knocked up and is heading nowhere fast. The girls hardly speak when they pass each other in the hallway and only Mimi seem to remember the box they buried.
When graduation comes along neither Lucy nor Kit have the night they had hoped for, and so they feel drawn to the field where the box is buried, where they find Mimi waiting for them. The girls dig up the box and discover that it's now full of broken dreams. But maybe it's not too late?
The girls decide to make a change and break away from their lives. Reluctantly they agree to join each other on a road trip to L.A. They hitch a ride with bad boy musician Ben, who has no idea what he's getting himself into, but he still manages to get sweet on Lucy as the trip progresses.
The plan is: Kit is going to check up on her long distance fiancé who, for some reason, seems reluctant to visit her this summer. Mimi will try to make a career for herself by going to an open audition for a record deal. And Lucy is trying to tie up some lose emotional ends by looking up her mother, who abandoned her when she was young. The trip will bring the girls closer again, and perhaps put them on a new path to a better life.
REVIEW
Those ducks lined up to be shot down with a popgun at your local fair, so you can win that big blue elephant, have a better chance of going home in one piece than Britney ever did, when she decided to try acting in an actual movie.
The critics threw themselves at the film and tore its admittedly simple premise to pieces, but writing "Crossroads" off as a Britney vanity project, is just too easy and facile. First of all this is a romantic chick flick that takes place in a romantic chick flick world. It does NOT take place in the real world. Remember that. Second, it's one thing not to like Britney's music, but to dislike everything she does automatically without an iota of independent thought is moronic. And third, most of the critics that maul the film are bitter, old and incapable of performing the most basic function of a film critic: Judging whether or not a film accomplishes what it sets out to do. Making a film critic watch a Britney movie and ask for a fair appraisal is a bit like asking a 2 year old to judge cinematic merit of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. You're not likely to get a meaningful answer.
I should also point out that this is not actually a Britney film. If not for any other reason than the simple fact that the role easily could have been played by another actress. The part is definitely tailored to a singer/actress, but anyone fitting that description could have stepped into Lucy's shoes.
So looking at "Crossroads" the way it deserves, with the right frame of mind, how does it hold up? Well, in a word: Perfectly. "Crossroads" is a charming little gem, there I said it. It's a road movie, with everything that entails - sleeping in flea bag motels, racing down the freeway in a convertible screaming along to boyband song you wouldn't be caught dead singing in real life. It's a chick flick, which means a lot of giggling over boys, bonding by the campfire, while talking about the future and sharing the past.
The key here is the relationship between the girls. It's sweet, innocent and irresistible. Also utterly predictable, but then again, I'm not looking for surprises from a film like this. I don't want it to be clever, take a detour, shock me, I just want it to be simple and fun. During the road trip the girls rediscover their friendship and realize that there really is no reason they're not talking any more, resulting in some sweet and gentle heart to heart scenes.
There are some truly inspired moments in this film, and a few uninspired ones as well, I'll admit that. One of the less fortunate moments is a scene where the girls have to enter a karaoke contest to earn money for fixing the car. Mimi freezes up and Lucy has to take over the mike and suddenly Britney is prancing around on the stage, working a stripper pole and looking invitingly at the camera and the film turns into an MTV promo reel (oh, sorry... that's music video to most people.). This is one of two instances where the film forgets it's not Britney Movie.
"That's funny, because this is exactly how I planned it to be!"
The film, however, makes up for it in other scenes. Like the excruciating classic scene where Lucy and Henry - her dweeb friend and lab partner (played by Justin Long to perfection) - get ready to have sex for the first time. Henry looks like he's about to faint, Britney looks like a high class hooker. They get under the sheets and she asks him to recite "the list", meaning the list of reason why its a good idea they have sex. The scene plays out to the tune of "Let's Get It On", by Marvin Gaye, so don't for a second assume the filmmakers don't realize what a cheesy moment they're staging.
Actually the film also has a little bite in a few scene. There's some really dark moments here and there. Particularly Lucy's confrontation with her mother which is surprisingly brutal.
I did say this is not a Britney movie, so let's briefly cover her co-stars. Taryn Manning plays Mimi and I absolutely love her. There's just something real about her. She seems like an actual person, not an actor pretending. It's not like she brings down the house with a bravura performance, she just feels natural. Zoe Saldana, who blew me away in "Center Stage" is also very effective, and together the three girls seem completely in sync, just like old friends. Anson Mount who plays Ben, the unfortunate fifth wheel of this girlie roadtrip, is charming in a pleasant relaxed way, seemingly unaware of his rugged good looks. Even Dan Aykroyd is perfectly cast as Lucy's overprotective father and gives a genuinely touching performance.
All in all a great very respectable cast.
WRAP-UP
When we first meet Britney she's in her bedroom, dancing around in her underwear, while singing along to Madonna, using a spoon as a mike, she looks like the very definition of teen innocence. As pure and white as snow. Positively radiant. I hope there's an alternate universe, where this beautiful and sweet girl got to fulfil the promise of her early projects.
For those of us stuck in this universe "Crossroads" is a great way to remember what Britney was about when she first stepped onto the scene. It's good, simple fun and it works, simply because it delivers exactly what it promises on the box. Now, what the hell is so wrong about that?
