One month ago, pop singer Mandy Moore starred in a surprising success, "A Walk to Remember." Now Britney Spears follows her lead with "Crossroads," a coming-of-age tale with direction by Tamara Davis that is actually better than it has the right to be.
This film touches on such heavy topics as teen pregnancy, parental abandonment and date rape. The movie tends to pile on too many "serious issues" on its plate at times, yet somehow remains fairly light, always entertaining and fairly well written.
The prologue features three little girls burying a box of their most prized possessions with a pledge to dig it up the night of their high school graduation. Their one wish is to be best friends forever.
Eight years later one of the girls, Lucy (played by Spears), has grown into a beautiful, intelligent teen. The introduction finds her bouncing around the room, lip-synching to Madonna in underwear that is two sizes too small.
Lucy's life has been all about good grades and early curfews. Despite being a knockout as the school's provocatively clad valedictorian, she's supposedly so much in the "out" crowd that she's planning to lose her virginity to a nervously dorky science lab partner on graduation night. But, being a good girl, she talks herself out of doing it with someone she doesn't love. Instead, she decides to do something spontaneous.
She embarks on a trip from North Carolina to California with her two childhood friends - prissy prom queen Kit (played by Zoe Saldana) and pregnant trailer-park tart Mimi (played by scene-stealing Taryn Manning).
Kit's scumbag fiance is currently attending UCLA and Lucy wants nothing more than to see the mother who abandoned her 15 years before (played by Kim Cattrall, of "Sex in the City"). The simple trip soon turns into one of self-discovery, bonding and emotional catharsis.
The screenplay, written by Shanda Rhimes, framed "Crossroads" to be an often incisive, sporadically schmaltzy comedy-drama that leaves no cliche of the road-trip movie genre unturned. From a busted radiator to the girls' last-ditched effort to win some money in a karaoke contest.
What transcends these tired genre staples and saves the movie is the well-rounded treatment of the characters. The issues and problems they face, both in relationships and in their shaky futures, is written with a lovely deftness that makes the people involved seem almost genuine.
One of the most pleasant surprises of "Crossroads" is how natural and likable Spears is as an actress. She has a warm screen presence that is utterly fetching, and she tests her dramatic skills with poignant results in two key sequences.
The parts that work in "Crossroads" work extremely well. A car-ride sing-along to "If it Makes You Happy" by Sheryl Crow, is invigorating in its sheer joyfulness, and a scene following Lucy's disappointing encounter with her mom is genuinely powerful, thanks to Spears' performance. The way Spears incorporates her current single "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," is fresh and original.
Some crucial scenes, however, are disappointingly handled, such as when Lucy confronts her mother. The scene is cut without seeming complete. Director Tamara Davis also has trouble ending the picture, tidying things up too neatly just to have a happy ending.
Yet the movie's connect-the-dots plot and highly telegraphed conflicts are balanced out by fun-loving performances, unaffected earnestness and consistently amusing banter.
Davis who directed "Billy Madison" and "Half-Baked" never takes her nose out of the Filmmaking 101 textbook for this movie. But, while the plot advancement is elementary at best, clumsy at worst, "Crossroads" is genuinely cheerful as well as character-driven by characters who are difficult to dislike.
All in all, "Crossroads"is a half-baked movie that is difficult to resist.
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