Fuller
(Steve Zahn)
Lewis (Paul Walker)
Venna (Leelee Sobieski)
Charlotte (Jessica Bowman)
Directed by John Dahl
Written by Clay Tarver and J.J. Abrams |
|
Running
Time: 96 minutes
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Joy Ride
is a road thriller that works better with tension and comedy
than horror elements. Thought I found this film to be modest,
mostly because of its last twenty minutes, it did have a nice
blend of comedy and thrills.
The film
opens with a typical college student, Lewis (Walker), leaving
Berkeley to go home for the semester break. When we first
meet Lewis, we learn of his real feelings for his old home
town friend Venna (Sobieski), who goes to school in Colorado.
The opening sequence has Lewis buying a car and heading to
Colorado on his way home to give Venna a ride. He ultimately
plans to tell her of his feelings on the long road trip home.
However, Lewis has to make a detour in Utah, to bail his trouble-bound
brother, Fuller (Zahn), out of jail for drunkenness. Learning
of his plan and knowing Fuller’s past, Lewis just wants
to drop his brother off somewhere along the way to Colorado.
On the other hand, Fuller insists on going to Colorado even
though Lewis admits that he and Venna are nothing more than
friends. Along the way, Fuller picks up a CB radio and begins
having fun with it.
The film
really gets going when Fuller talks Lewis into imitating a
woman’s voice over the CB named Candy Cane and setting
up a meeting with a lonely trucker named Rusty Nail. Lewis
tells the trucker to meet Candy Cane in room 17 of a small
town motel, while he and Fuller listen in from room 18. The
terror then strikes as the guest in room 17 is left for dead
and the police begin questioning Lewis and Fuller. As the
two try to regroup and head to Boulder, they realize that
Rusty Nail is following, watching and terrorizing them. The
film turns into a thrill ride as the two do get to Venna,
in which she is thrust into Rusty Nail’s game as well.
The overall
point of this film besides its thrills is to make you think
before you do onto others. Lewis and Fuller picked on the
wrong guy and their world gets turned into hell because of
their actions. Joy Ride is a better film than a recent slasher/horror
film called Valentine (2001), in which both share the same
theme. In Valentine, the nerdy, unpopular guy from comes back
some years later to terrorize the girls that made fun of him
in middle school. Another film example is the classic horror
Carrie (1976).
Though
I thought the theme of this film worked, I did have some problems
with the script by Clay Tarver and J.J. Abrams. The film had
a nice pace and blended well with the action/suspense/comedy
factors, but the last twenty minutes of the film really brought
it down in my opinion. I understand its climatic setting to
be unique to the story and tension, but it is nearly predictable
and bland. I can’t really say too much about the ending,
because I don’t want to ruin it for you.
The characters
themselves I found had more originality and depth than most
thriller/horror films, but there isn’t much closure to
the questions of their relationships by the end of the film.
I also had some real questions to some of Fuller’s actions
in the second act.
The DVD
version of Joy Ride answers some of these questions that I
had. In the special features section of the DVD there are
two alternate endings, in which one shows the some closure
on the relationships. However, I found that the different
endings were worse than the one that director John Dahl stuck
with. Dahl explains through his commentary of why the alternate
endings wouldn’t work, and I do agree with his comments
that the different endings would leave the film more dry and
unbelievable.
John
Dahl is a director whose work I have liked in the past. His
previous credits include Red Rock West (1993), The Last Seduction
(1994), and Rounders (1998). He does keep the suspense and
action sequences in Joy Ride elaborative. Thorough the commentary
on the DVD, Dahl’s comments seemed like he was having
problems with the end of the script, which is why he shot
three different versions. I can not explain too much, but
the ending chosen almost seems like a cop-out.
Dahl
does do a good job of hiding his villain, Rusty Nail, in which
most of the film he is a creepy voice on the CB. Dahl uses
extreme close-ups on the CB along with the sound wave colors
rising each time Rusty Nail’s voice comes on. Speaking
of colors, I believe Dahl’s use of red from the brake
lights on the characters in the “open the trunk”
scene was the best visual shot of the film. It brought in
the psychological meaning of the color while splashing it
on the characters and also symbolizing the “red”
of a stop light with being a road thriller.
As for
the cast, Steve Zahn’s quirky mannerisms contribute his
likeable performance as he overshadows Walker and Sobieski.
Zahn is just absolutely goofy with his humor and one can’t
help but like him. Paul Walker is an actor that I really have
never cared much for, but he is better in this film than his
previous ones. I have had mixed opinions about Sobieski, but
in time I believe she will be a star in Hollywood.
Joy Ride
is a thriller that conveys the theme of treat people as you
would want to be treated, and don’t pull laughs on people
that you don’t know. Though I had many problems with
the film, it is better than most of the thrillers that have
come out recently on DVD and video (ex. Don’t Say a Word
(2001)). I can’t help but refer this film in similarity
to Steven Spielberg’s classic Duel (1971). Joy Ride is
not nearly the same story line, but both have some of the
same elements. However, Duel is all thrills, and Joy Ride
has an ample amount of humor in it, especially from Steve
Zahn.
Report
Card Grade: C
Beastman’s
Movie Reviews
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