After seeing writer-director Dylan McCormick's debut film, "Four Lane Highway" at the TriBeCa Film Festival, I can safely say that it quite possibly one of the worst movies that I have ever seen. It is in essence a schlocky romance film that pulls out every awful cliché in the book.
An irritating Fred Weller plays Sean, the son of a famous writer who was so discouraged by his father that he is wasting his life as a bartender and construction worker in a small Maine college town. Sean was allegedly a great writer just like his dad, but decided to give it up after his dad gave told him that he lacked talent. After a hard day on the job (boo-hoo), Sean decides to go to New York to reclaim his one true love, Molly, played by Greer Goodman on autopilot. Enter Sean's drunken, tag-along buddy, Lyle (Reg Rogers), one of many completely pointless characters; his only function is to be an alcoholic and a source of unfunny comic relief. Unfortunately for him, Rogers turns in the best performance in the film as this useless and underwritten character. Lyle's jokes are the only ones in the film that might produce at least a slight snicker.
In New York, Sean finds Molly, apparently a successful painter, and does the whole "I Want You Back" song and dance. This is where yet another pointless character, Sasha (Elizabeth Rodriguez) is introduced. She has some sort of an undefined problem where it is obvious that she is depressed and sleeps around, yet it is never actually explained. Her story is one of many dropped subplots. Once Molly and Sean finally hook up, it somehow causes Sean to realize exactly what is wrong with his life, and you can pretty much guess where it goes from there. Their entire passionless love affair is told through a series of confusing flashbacks periodically through the movie.
In sum, "Four Lane Highway" is full of two things that should never be in movies: tons of clichés and tons of plot holes. It is confusing and boring. Moving at an incredibly sluggish pace it is the longest 109 minutes of your life. If this movie is lucky enough to get a distributor, which it does not deserve, do not waste your time and money seeing it.
