Jake Gyllenhaal was just reviewed by us in the sleeper hit of 2001, Donnie Darko. This up and coming star is back in New Line's Highway, yet another film that takes place a few years back. Set during April 1994, the film stars Jake as Pilot Kelson buddy to Jack Hayes (Jared Leto), a pool boy with a bad mullet. They've been friends since their youth, which is presented through flashbacks. Pilot and Jake are now both twentysomethings with little direction in the their lives.
That is until Jake decides to play doctor with one of his clients wives. Oh did I mention that the client just happens to be one of Las Vegas's biggest mob bosses? Of course Jack gets caught and after suckerpunching the mob boss with a vase, he sets out to ask Pilot for advice. The two decide to leave town and Pilot suggests Seattle. At the time Jack doesn't know it but Pilot picks Seattle with an ulterior motive. It seems that despite Pilot having a lady, he is impotent and believes the reason is an old flame that has since moved to Seattle.
Jack and Pilot, needing cash for the trip, pay a visit to Scawldy played wonderfully by Jeremy Piven. Scawldy is a drug dealer who hooks the two up with some product to sell for funds. Piven's onscreen time is short but he has one of the best parts. Before leaving Jack makes the mistake of telling Scawldy where they are heading, even worse saying it on tape.
The road trip then begins for these two very lower class Las Vegans whose wild ride takes them from a chicken ranch to a gas station where they meet up with Cassie (Selma Blair) to a circus freakshow called The Boy and finally to Seattle where a vigil for Kurt Cobain is taking place. Cassie is an interesting addition that causes Jake to begin to have romantic intentions. The running gag was that Pilot was impotent and Jake couldn't finish, that is until Cassie appears.
While Cassie never really adds much to the film, the gang does run into Johnny The Fox, played wonderfully by John C. McGinley of Office Space fame. Johnny the Fox is quite possibly the most likeable character in the film, as Jack, Cassie and Pilot are all too artificial and self absorbed. This aging hippy plays the grunge clubbie to a tee, almost as if ten years ago the real life actor was really clubbing.
The film's ending tries hard to resolve many of the characters self absorbed problems but never really connects. Pilot realizes that he misses the girl he's abused in the beginning of the film but only after getting the worst sort of response from the Seattle girl he trekked to see. Jack pays the ultimate price for his adultery but at least has Cassie at his side. And the two friends who constantly pop quiz each other realize that what they were running from really was themselves, which we are left to believe this trip has taught them.
In the end though I felt empty and unsatisfied. The story has a certain amount of train wreck charm that kept me watching all the way through but the story lacks the hook of a weird film to keep me coming back. Highway is a movie that almost but doesn't quite entertain.
The Disc:
Surprisingly New Line barely gave this disc anything that screams DVD. For a company that prides itself on making the DVD experience something unique, Highway disappoints. I would have liked to have seen some stuff on Kurt Cobain, maybe a commentary track or even simply some cast information. None of that is here as this as bare bones as they come.
The picture quality however is pretty much on the mark with only one or two instances of poor quality. The look of the film is very stylized and the DVD transfer brings this out very well. Detail and sharpness are excellent, with strong shadow delineation even in the darkest scenes.
The audio in the film comes in either 5.1 Dolby Digital or the usual 2.0 surround. The soundtrack is provided by Chris Robinson of Black Crowes fame, which indeed rocks. I'm a big fan of the Black Crowes so keep that in mind. The voices are pretty much centered with the thumps and music being well angled. New Line did a good job on the soundtrack here.
bottom line:
I like Jake Gyllenhaal and believe he is going to be one of the hottest stars in the coming years. The cast is well picked but the story is too unconnecting to get the emotional response it intends. This is really a buddy flick that's supposed to make you feel good about how funny life is but I came away not caring about these characters, despite the solid acting. Sometimes a story just becomes too convoluted instead of flowing evenly and that's what happened here.
By - Brian "Shroom" Gray
