From Smokey and the Bandit to Thelma and Louise, the road movie seems to have an allure as strong as the open highway itself, rumbling along beneath the wheels of a '64 Buick Skylark convertible.
Tail Lights Fade (it could also be called Angie and Cole and Bruce and Wendy), screening tonight at Local Heroes, is one of those rare Canadian takes on the road flick. Even if its cast is largely American and virtually the entire thing was shot outside of Vancouver.
But compared to some of the heavy, arty stuff at the fest, Toronto director Malcolm Ingram's slacker-sheened kick in the asphalt is fast, fun and doesn't require too much brain power.
The movie opens with Toronto grad student Angie (Tanya Allen) finding out her West Coast brother has been jailed for pot possession. He pleads with her to come to Vancouver and dispose of his humongous grow operation before the law finds it first.
Angie's boyfriend, Cole (Breckin Meyer), offers to drive her from T.O. to Lotusland to help curry some favour with his chilly galpal. But when Cole's party-hearty buddy Bruce (Jake Busey) and his trashy girlfriend Wendy (Denise Richards) find out about the trip, they turn it into a cross-country rally race, with both parties behind the wheels of classic convertibles.
Along the way they stop at - and sometimes deface - Canada's weird collection of oversized roadside attractions, like the monstrous nickel in Sudbury and Vegreville's giant pysanka (or Ukrainian Easter egg, as it's known to the under-informed masses).
Cole tries to fix his broken relationship with the dour Angie while keeping Bruce and Wendy out of his hair. Meanwhile in Vancouver, the conniving Eve (Elizabeth Berkley) is trying to find the pot as well, with an eye to selling it. Hijinks naturally ensue on and off the road.
It's all good, clean fun, even if everybody basically succumbs to their individual foibles and tries to screw over poor Cole. As far as Canadian road movies go, though, Tail Lights Fade is not the most memorable trip ever committed to film ... Bruce McDonald's Highway 61 is a pretty tough one to knock off the top of that heap.
Still, given that this is Edmonton, audiences will be very relieved to know that nobody in the movie spray-paints the Vegreville pysanka. Breathe easy.
(This film is rated AA )
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