As a side note, I've
recently become a member of LoveFilm, meaning from time to time you'll see a
review of a movie I found randomly in the bowels of the internet. Just go with
it.
Interstate 60 is an oddity. It has all the elements of a
classic – a great cast, a talented writer/director, an interesting plot filled
with great oddball characters – and yet no one seems to have heard of it. Here
in the UK especially, there was no cinema release, no straight-to-video,
nothing.
Which seems strange, considering the talents attached. Bob
Gale, the co-writer of the first Back to the Future and the writer of its
subsequent sequels, makes his directorial debut here, and does so very well. He
creates a deconstruction of classic road movies, set in a surreal, magically
realistic universe. The movie is about James Marsden at a crossroads in his
life (figuratively and later literally), under pressure from his father to
become a lawyer. During his 22nd birthday, he wishes for answers in
life, which a magically being (a mirthful Gary Oldman) overhears and grants. Marsden
gets sent on a road trip to deliver a mysterious package, and along the way he
runs into all kinds of trouble. Hilarity, poignancy and adventure ensue.
It's a good movie elevated by a great cast – Chris Cooper is
particularly good as a businessman with an obsession for the truth (and
dynamite), and keep an eye out for Christopher Lloyd and Michael J Fox (in a
hilarious cameo), reunited on screen for the first time together since 1990. If
you have the opportunity to watch this underrated and under distributed movie (I hesitate to use the word 'gem' as I
hate the phrase), do, as there's nothing quite like it.
★★★★
