I found this to be an interesting, character-driven drama with excellent actors, a neat setting, and a pace that kept me watching.
Writer-director Dylan McCormick makes a good debut with this film, which I saw at Tribeca Film Festival. Some walked away calling it the best romance film of the year, some called it a "chick flick" or a "schlock for jock" film. I say it is neither.
Actor Fred Weller plays the son of a famed writer who refuses to follow in his talented father's footsteps and forgoes his talent by earning his living as a carpenter and bartender in a college community. Sean decides to go to New York to find Molly, his true soul mate, a painter. She is played by Greer Goodman. Also along for the ride is Sean's sidekick, Lyl, an alcoholic and much of this serious film's comic relief, as played by Regg Rogers; and several other interesting supporting characters and actors.
"Four Lane Highway" is a treat for the female film fan who likes romance, the patient man who likes character drama, and the indie film love such as myself who likes a slow pace where characters develop, where not everything is explained by a director who holds our hands, and some portion of the plot and drama is left to the viewer's imagination--we get to decide some part of who is whom and what is what, in fact. And Jeff Branson (a relatively new actor who currently stars on the ABC daytime serial "All My Children") is a gem!
