By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * )
Stop me if you've heard this before #1: Get your motor running, head out on the highway, looking for adventure ... oh, sorry, press play.
Alice (Melanie Lynskey, below), a product of the TV generation, lives in a South Island backwater. She dreams
of living on Route 66; her role models are from Thelma And Louise and other great American movies. Her best friend, Johnny (Dean O'Gorman), tries to keep Alice's feet on the ground but as they ride around the district in his old red Valiant DIY convertible he, too, is frightened by the mediocrity that stretches before him.
They head out on the highway, looking for adventure. Somewhere on a wild, one-day ride across the Mainland from the Canterbury Plains to the West Coast, they run into an American tourist, Seth (Boyd Kestner). Seth is not what he seems, as the next few hours of an increasingly crazy trip (in both senses of the word) will reveal.
At various times they will be chased by a ute full of speed-snorting, bat-wielding skinheads (led by Oliver Driver), a pair of dope dealers in an ice cream van, and face their futures with considerable pharmaceutical assistance.
It will all come to a head - pardon the pun - in the vastness of the Southern Alps in yet another flick which shows that Tourist Board line about New Zealand winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Country in a Movie was really good.
And like all good road movies - Easy Rider, Thelma And Louise, Goodbye Pork Pie - this is a driving test for you, the viewer. If you're an old fart you'll be worried about whether the car's got a warrant and why they don't give way. If you've got any soul you'll be rooting for the kids in the Valiant.
Rental video: Out now
* DVD: not available
