Freeway
Tags: comedy, fantasy, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, satire, romantic, revenge

Plot synopsis:
Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon) is a tough-minded, Deep South-accented, uneducated, illiterate 15-year-old who lives in a poor neighborhood ghetto in Los Angeles. She's currently living in a run-down motel room and being raised by her neglectful, drug-addicted mother, Ramona (Amanda Plummer), who supports them by collecting welfare and working as a prostitute. Ramona's current boyfriend, Larry (Michael T. Weiss) spends his days getting high by smoking crack and sexually abusing Vanessa. When the police bust Ramona for hooking on a nearby corner, they take Larry and Ramona away to prison and leave Vanessa with foster care as an option. When her social worker comes to take her away, Vanessa handcuffs her to a bed and makes off with her car. Before leaving the neighborhood, Vanessa stops to talk to her boyfriend Chopper (Bokeem Woodbine) to tell him that she is leaving town to search for the only family member she knows of, a distant grandmother who lives in Northern California and who doesn't even know Vanessa exists. Chopper gives Vanessa his gun and tells her to pawn it for cash. As soon as Vanessa drives off and is out of sight, thugs drive by and shoot the now-defenseless Chopper dead.The stolen car that Vanessa is driving breaks down on the local Interstate (I-5) freeway just outside Los Angeles, and a man in an SUV pulls over to help her. He identifies himself as Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland), and tells Vanessa that the car is not driveable anymore. He offers to give Vanessa a ride with him, and she goes with him in his vehicle.After driving a while, Bob gets Vanessa to open up to him and tell him about her life, and she tells him about her broken home, her mother's drug abuse and prostitution, the violence and abuse that she has encountered in various foster homes, and the sexual abusiveness of Larry. At one point, Vanessa shows Bob a photo she keeps in her wallet of her biological father. (The photo used is actually a picture of mass murderer Richard Speck.)After buying her dinner at a roadside restaurant, and pretending to engage her in a theraputic session during the drive, Bob reveals himself to be a notorious serial killer, known by the press as the "I-5 Killer" who has been haunting the freeway and killing innocent young women who walk along it.Vanessa is afraid, but she also becomes infuriated at him for violating the trust she put in him by telling him her life story, and Bob finds that she is not easily intimidated. Furthermore, Vanessa easily identifies the hypocrisy that Bob reveals when he identifies Vanessa and his other victims as "garbage people". "You act like you're on some kind of mission," she tells him, "but you really just wanna get off in a sex type way." The fact that Vanessa is so logical and intelligent, despite her limited vocabulary and background, enrages Bob, especially when Vanessa is more disgusted than afraid when he reveals that he wants to perform sex acts on her body after he kills her.Using her quick wit, she is able to attack Bob and turn the tables on him by diving into the back seat and retrieving Chopper's gun. She forces Bob at gunpoint to pull off of the freeway into a desolate area, where she explains that Bob has proved to her that he is rotten and will only continue to murder women if she does not stop him. Vanessa shoots Bob in the face, and is horrified when she must pull the trigger over and over in order to kill him. When she thinks he is finally dead, she takes his wallet and walks to a nearby diner, where the blood all over her clothes alerts everybody that something is wrong. She is easily apprehended minutes later by the police, who take her into custody. Meanwhile, Bob, who is not dead after all, manages to get to a hospital and get help for his injuries.At a local police station, Vanessa is questioned by two policemen, Mike Breer (Wolfgang Bodison) and Garnet Wallace (Dan Hedaya). At first, Vanessa is cooperative and freely admits to shooting Bob, but she is dismayed to learn that she did not kill him. Although she tells the policemen that Bob is the I-5 Killer, they do not believe her. After making a background check on Vanessa, they discover her long criminal record for a variety of crimes from shoplifting, to arson, and assault and battery, while they tell her that Bob Wolverton is a well known and respected citizen with no criminal record or any history of violence at all. Furthermore, when Breer aggressively questions her, Vanessa reveals a violent temper and she attacks him physically while hurling racial insults at him.At her arraignment, Vanessa refuses to show remorse for her actions, insisting to the judge and prosecutor that Bob is the I-5 Killer (which falls on deaf ears), and when she sees how badly she has wounded Bob, who is now deformed, she reacts with laughter and fury over what he tried to do to her. The judge orders Vanessa to a juvenile detention center until she can be evaluated for her ability to be tried as an adult.While in the detention center, Vanessa meets a sympathetic drug-addicted teen girl named Rhonda (Brittany Murphy), who befriends Vanessa and tries to get her to make out with her. Vanessa agrees, but insists that she will not have sex with Rhonda, "Cause I'm straight." Another girl, a tough Latina named Mesquita (Alanna Ubach), tries to bully Vanessa. Before she can even threaten her, Vanessa attacks Mesquita and bloodies her badly, forcing the matrons to lock her in solitary confinement. While there, she makes a shiv out of a toothbrush to protect herself, and plots her escape.Days later, Vanessa's guards in the detention center write a report recommending that Vanessa be tried as an adult, as her chances for rehabilitation seem to be nil. Meanwhile, Bob and his straight-laced wife, Mimi (Brooke Shields), are hailed by the media as "heroes" for persevering after Vanessa's attack. Detective Breer begins to change his opinion of Vanessa after he and Wallace interview Vanessa's peers and learn of how highly she was regarded. Breer especially is suprised to learn that Vanessa's deseased boyfriend, Chopper, was black, which changes his perspective regarding the racist remarks that Vanessa made to him in her moment of anger. He returns to the crime scene and finds overlooked evidence that indicates Vanessa's story may actually be true.While Vanessa, Mesquita, and two other twin girls are being transferred in a van to the state prison, Vanessa and Mesquita escape by launching a violent attack on the guards using Vanessa's shiv, killing one, maming another, and making off with the van. Mesquita takes Vanessa into her care and gets her a fake ID, clothes, and a gun when they reunite with Mesquita's boyfriend. She and Vanessa share a moment of bonding, and Mesquita tells Vanessa that she only tried to intimidate her so that Vanessa would "put out for her." They laugh, and Vanessa tells Mesquita that she'd put out for her any day. With that, Vanessa and Mesquita go their seperate ways.Meanwhile, Wallace and Breer obtain a search warrant and invade Wolverton's home to search for evidence. When they unlock a small shed in back of the house, they discover all sorts of lurid items, including a large stash of child pornography and various trophies from his victims. Mimi then realizes that her husband really is a serial killer, and she suddenly commits suicide in response. Bob returns home and sees his house surrounded by police cars, so he quickly drives off to avoid capture. (In his earlier encounter with Vanessa, he had apparently obtained a photo of the grandmother, with her address written on the back.)Vanessa uses the clothes that Mesquita gave her to pose as a prostitute, luring a john into a secluded area and then robbing him at gunpoint. After forcing him into his car trunk, Vanessa drives off in the man's car to where her grandmother lives. At the same time, Wallace and Breer figure out where she is going and hope to intercept her before Bob can get to her.When Vanessa arrives at her grandmother's home, which is actually a trailer in a run-down trailer park (lacking the wicker basket that she had with her earlier in the story), she finds that Bob has killed her and is hiding in her bed while dressed as her. After a vicious struggle, Vanessa kills Wolverton by strangling him to death. Detectives Wallace and Breer arrive too late to stop the confrontation. They eventually enter the trailer to find Wolverton and Vanessa's grandmother both dead, and an exhausted and emotionally broken Vanessa is beside herself who puts up her hands and surrenders to the two detectives. However, the detectives appear to exonerate Vanessa when they both begin laughing, and Vanessa follows suit. Vanessa asks the officers: "Y'all got a cigarette?"

Review: It is a carefully written and delivered retelling of one of our most beloved fairy tales with a extremely dark twist.Reece Witherspoon (pre-Legally Blonde) gives a performance that surprised me.
I know there were some poor reviews when it was first released, but I am sure that a second viewing would bring this gem back to life.I would also like to add that director Matthew Bright is a film genius.
This movie is wickedly funny, and Reese Witherspoon plays the most hilarious, bad-girl, tough trailer trash role I've ever seen and plays it fantastically.
She's picked up by Bob Wolveton (Kiefer Sutherland) who might be a mass murderer...Film begins and ends like a very perverse version of "Little Red Riding Hood".
Each turn in the story hit me like a slap in the face, each new character was like a gift, but Reese Witherspoon playing the queen of trailer park trash was done like a symphony.
Reese Witherspoon has never made a better movie than Freeway...Although I respect her for wanting to do more romantic/family oriented movies because of her daughter, I don't think even she realizes how amazing she was playing this role...She was completely foul mouthed and hot tempered, but her timing and attitude was fantastic..I recently realized how this movie is and has been potential for cult classic....Reese Witherspoon never mentions this movie in any interviews and I wish she would because I would like to hear her thoughts on playing Vanessa Julia Lutz....
Based on the classic Grimm Brothers tale, Little Red Riding Hood; Freeway is the disjointed and frankly weird odyssey following a young girl on the way to her grandmother's home.
The film sees Reese Witherspoon's juvenile delinquent being picked up by Kiefer Sutherland's child psychologist after fleeing from her home when her mother and step father are arrested.
Most audience members will be on the side of Witherspoon's character, as although she certainly has personality problems, she's great fun to watch and her twisted logic isn't usually far from being spot on!
But in Matthew Bright's "Freeway" we have a solid script, confident direction, an excellent supporting cast, and a gleefully twisted world view, all backing up a boldly brilliant star-turn performance by Reese Witherspoon.
I know, it may seem ridiculous to some, but actually, even after all these years (now well into 2012), this is still a film to watch, and no one could have delivered the key role more perfectly than Reese Witherspoon.
has stood the test of time.And it is absolutely one of Reese's best ever performances.Sadly, her more recent work has sort of flattened out into much less risky, complex roles, but hey, a great actress she is..
It stars Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Dan Hedaya, Wolfgang Bodison, Brooke Shields & Brittany Murphy.
Plot is darkly based around the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale and sees young runaway Vanessa Lutz (Witherspoon) hit the road after her parents are arrested.
He in turn is in for a big surprise himself since Vanessa is more than capable of looking after herself.Twisted and richly humorous, Matthew Bright's movie oozes originality and quite frankly deserves to be better appreciated: never mind better known!
I'd argue that here we have the better acted film with Witherspoon and Sutherland giving virtuoso performances: with admirable support coming from the likes of Bodison, Shields and Murphy.One of the most undervalued film's of the 90s?
Reese Witherspoon fits so snugly in the role of Vanessa "I Ain't No Trickbaby" Lutz, a saucy street smart 15 year old with a mouth like a f***ing sailor.
I know everyone loves Reese Witherspoon but she is by far the most interesting thing about this film, which is dull, violent and uninventive, and even her one trick pony gets old after a while.
This film is a complete cliché, and I've seen Kiefer Sutherland play a crazed rapist one too many times now.
The story is a very personal and dared interpretation of the famous Little Red Riding Hood fairy-tale, transposed from the woods to present day California and featuring more appropriate menaces like prostitution, serial killers, drug addiction and child abuse.
In her most fabulous performance ever (her recent brilliant portrayal of June Carter in "Walk the Line" not included), Reese Witherspoon stars as an illiterate and very unlucky teenager stuck in the lowest social class with a street-walking mother and a sex-hungry stepfather.
Apart from Witherspoon and the always adequate Kiefer Sutherland, great acting talents can be found in the supportive cast, like Dan Hedaya, Amanda Plummer, Michael T.
His only real competition in the hyper-real pop art black comedy stakes is Gregg Araki, whose 'Doom Generation' and 'Nowhere' display a similar kick ass sensibility.Reese Witherspoon is dynamite as the white trash lethal Lolita Vanessa Lutz.
Kiefer Sutherland gets his most interesting part in years as her nemesis, the slimy Bob. And the supporting cast is equally strong, especially dependable character actor Dan Hedaya ('Blood Simple', 'The Usual Suspects'), the cute Brittany Murphy ('Clueless') who oozes sex appeal, and Amanda Plummer ('Pulp Fiction') and Michael T.
Extremely poor performances,a script as improbable and tactless as they come, and violence with no reason.Reese Witherspoon is so laughably bad,the accent,the mannerisims and her lack of emotin when a certain relative turns up dead all contributed to my annoyance.
We had seen Reese Witherspoon in "A Far Off Place" a few years earlier, but "Freeway" was the movie that really introduced us to her.
She plays Vanessa Lutz, a teenage girl who runs away from home and gets picked up by a man named Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland), only to find out something very unpleasant that leads to a most unusual series of events.For the most part, you might call this one of those quirky movies that pops up every once in a while.
Great movie, easily one of Reese Witherspoon's best performances.
Clearly and explicitly a rewrite of Little Red Riding Hood although it has more to do with Natural Born Killers or Pulp Fiction than anything read to small children.There are movies in America that seem to take the view that killing is not killing, guns are not guns and death is death.
Black comedy, modern "Red Riding Hood", is a great acting vehicle for Reese Witherspoon ..
When I watched "Freeway" I had already become a fan of Reese Witherspoon, but her performance here was nothing short of Oscar-caliber.
A must see, if you don't take it too seriously.Sept 2017 update: I have seen 'Freeway' an additional 5 times since my initial review, most recently now, it has lost some of its charm over the years, still the scenes with Vanessa and the "wolf" are quite funny.
All the characters are unappealing, and Reese Witherspoon, so believable and natural in the same year's "Fear", doesn't have it in her to play a tough girl; she POSES gamely in the role, to be sure, but it's only posing, not acting, and there are times, such as the scene in the car where she's holding a gun and making "mean" faces, when she's excruciatingly unconvincing.
should just stay retired or go in hiding or wherever he was before this came out.Reese has to regret doing this film.Very predictable, with no plot or storyline that you're average movie buff couldn't come up with.
It is extremely strange why people criticize some movies for being too violent and then watch tripe like this and declare it a "guilty pleasure."  Reese Witherspoon, Dan Hedaya and whatever other respectable actors who were in this theatrical train wreck should conspire to have their names removed from it.
I hope those of you that enjoyed it got your money's worth from ogling 15 year old Reese Witherspoon, because that's the only logical explanation I can come up with for why this thing is so well liked; convicted child "endangerers" must love the darn thing..
I seen this movie when it first come out I was 15 at the time and idolized Witherspoon's character Vanessa.
Reese Witherspoon gives her best performance ever in this movie.
My sister lent me and my mom Freeway and she said that it was a really cool film that had a great twist on Little Red Riding Hood, but when I noticed Reese and Kiefer, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to watch this film.
They were so great as Red and the Big Bad Wolf, not to mention that in some sick way, this movie just makes you laugh over and over again despite it's twisted ways.Venessa doesn't have a fairy tale life, her mom is a prostitute, her step dad molests her, she has a gangsta boyfriend, and she's had multiple arrests.
Brooke Shields is wonderfully over the top as Bob's patrician wife, and Dan Hedaya is great as the cop who is the only person who supports Vanessa.This is an excellent picture, seek it out!P.S. Looking back, this film fits well into Reese's middle part of her career, after she was a wonderful child actress and prior to her becoming one of Hollywood's leading ladies.
These elements are woven into a dense plot and you're never quite sure who's the victim and who's the offender.Troubled teenager Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon) gets picked up on the Freeway by Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland) after her car has broken down.
The story then depicts the trial of Vanessa, her time in the women's prison and her evasion back onto the road to find her grandmother.The story cumulates in a trailer park where Girl, Grandmother, Wolf and Hunters meet for the final climax, which is a real heart-stopper.If you're looking for action, black humor, psychological terror and gore, this is the movie to watch, because it treats you with subtle doses of all of it.If you ever wanted to know how Brooke Shields' brain looks on white tiling, go get the movie!.
Far away from being intelligent like Coen's films "Freeway" comes to amaze us with bringing the story of Little Red Riding Hood in a different environment with many violent and funny situations.Reese Witherspoon plays the troubled Vanessa, a girl whose mother and stepfather were arrested, and she doesn't want to go to foster care or similar, deciding instead on going to her grandmother's house, the only place she can go.
This Little Red Riding Hood won't bring cookies to grandma, and she's not so innocent like the old tale, here's a girl with lots of problems and lots of anger too after meeting her Big Bad Wolf, Bob a friendly psycho killer (Kiefer Sutherland) who picks her up on the road after her car broke.
It's full of surprises, very uncompromising and has some interesting performance from Witherspoon as the talking/smart/violent/Christian girl who manages to survive the whole ride meeting creepy characters on the way, and a nice performance from Kiefer playing the friendly guy who ends up being a killer trapped in his own evilness, after the girl shoot him several times, and this guy for some reason doesn't die but keeps living a painful life after.
The scenes with both in the car, talking about her problems and he's playing the good listener was very good, and sometimes I wish that the whole movie would be focused on them doing this because it was interesting so these two change to each other the way they act, talk and all, but then we would have a dramatic feature, something that this film is not.
Kiefer Sutherland makes a great performance in this movie.
Freeway is a modern retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" - with a completely darker twist.Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon) is an illiterate, white trash 15 year old with an extremely foul mouth and an even worse temper.
I think that Freeway was an innovative film and showcased Reese Witherspoon in a role not yet seen by her before.
Since it had been one of her first films and quite frankly the first time I had seen the actress before, it was a good story line and made you perhaps look differently at the perception of people.
Vanessa then makes her way to her grandmother's house in Stockton, California when she meets a seemingly pleasant man Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland) on the highway while having car trouble.
Overall, a very lurid, vulgar, explicit rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood"...Reese was insane, in a good way!
"Freeway", the 1996 thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland and Reese Witherspoon is a very provocative and intense film.
Playing her role straight, Reese Witherspoon--who I could see was good and was going to make it--is the fearless and clueless teenager hitchhiking to her grandmother's house in Stockton,CA(!) Both she and Kiefer Sutherland do excellent jobs.
After her mom and stepfather are arrested for drug possession, 15 year old Vanessa Lutz(Reese Witherspoon), decides to go look for her grandmother because she doesn't want to go to another foster home.
If you like sick, twisted movies, or awesomely black comedies, or combinations of the two, then Freeway is a must..
Reese Witherspoon, in what was apparently her first major movie role (this was made in 1996) plays the Red Riding Hood character, with an interesting twist; she is forced to go to Grandma's when her own junkie-prostitute mother, and "overly friendly" stepfather are hauled off to the pokey.
On the way she is picked after her own car breaks down on the freeway up by Keifer Sutherland (who was billed as the star) whose character's name is "Bob Wolverton".
Mark my words, In another five years it will considered one of the finest video cult-classics of the 90s.The film is described as a retelling of that old molestation tale Little Red Riding Hood - and, great as the movie, that's pretty much all it does.
What I liked about the movie though is that the filmmakers not only retold the story in a more adult way, but they also modernised it and changed the characters and plot to something that actually tells us something of our times and its problems.
Little Red Riding Hood (wonderfully portrayed by Reese Witherspoon) is a "bad" girl trying to make it in a rotten world, and the wolf (Keither Sotherland in his only part i've liked - probably because he gets it so hard in the end) is a psycho serial killer with a taste for young girls.
If that was the case I would support it all the way - just thinking of how insane young girls are treated in our society (that whole virginity-thing for example, or the fact that rapist can get away with it if the victim wore short skirt!) makes it clear that more films like Freeway are needed.
Reese Witherspoon saves this film and is about the only entertaining thing to come out of it.The modern version of Little Red Riding Hood sure has changed a lot from the fairy tale version.
I have to say it once more: Witherspoon is fantastic.'Freeway' is a movie that would be good to see one night (probably if there isn't anything else on).
This movie has Reese Witherspoon (CRUEL INTENTIONS) & Kiefer Sutherland (LOST BOYS) in a film that pushes comedy to a new level.
Reese Witherspoon wowed me first with The Man In The Moon, and for me her role as Vanessa in Freeway is her best to date.
This movie is sick, violent, and disturbing...however, the acting is good and the story is woven around a "little red riding hood" theme.
Great performances from Kiefer Sutherland and Reese Witherspoon..
Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland had great performances.The mom and step-dad were a trip!.
This movie is so funny and surprising that you will see it over and over again.Kiefer Sutherland and Reese Witherspoon plays their roles excellent in this very violent black comedy I think this role was almost made for Reese Witherspoon,because I can not think of any other person who can play that cool teenager role the way she does.
There's one reason to see this film -- to see Reese Witherspoon's delightful comic performance.
Very briefly, I liked the movie OK, but it was Reese Witherspoon's performance as an intelligent-but-trashy abused runaway teen hooker that really impressed me.
In the lead role, Reese Witherspoon displays an extraordinary talent I will certainly enjoy watching develop over the coming years.
This film, a dark modernist retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fable, is exquisitely unflinching as it portrays the differences between characters who act in immoral ways (like Vanessa Lutz) through necessity, and those who act immorally from a position of privilege.
Reese Witherspoon plays Vanessa, the modern Red Ridding Hood, who is the type of girl you would see on Jerry Springer (as the film begins she is struggling to read the sentence "The cat drinks milk").
It's basically a very twisted take on the Little Red Riding Hood story, featuring Little Red (Reese Witherspoon), the wolf (Keifer Sutherland), the grandmother (Kitty Fox, looking a lot like Jerri Blank's father in "Strangers With Candy"), and even Little Red's basket.
She looks EXACTLY like Little Red Riding Hood did in the cartoon she and her stepfather were watching earlier.
She even carries a basket to top off the red riding hood idea..Recommended for those who like good characters and a twisted story line..
I'm just at a loss for words on how incredibly BAD it is and I honestly don't know how they got such a great actor like Kiefer Sutherland to partake in this disaster piece (I'm guessing he had high bills to pay and no other movies to work on at that time).