Lost Junction (2003)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

From my favorite movies..

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

... but an unpretentious often funny one.This is not the kind of movie you will watch twice but you can save it for a rainy day.Many lines are full of black humor ("When we get to New Orleans ,my husband will be there " ) and good scenes (the priest reading the Book of Ecclesiastes not to mention Neve Campbell and the pretty little houses of the graveyard).The cast is uniformly good with Jack Busey as some kind of disabled Starsky who steals every scene he is in.Main objection: the poor ending and the mediocre black and white flashback.Not much food for thought but,by and large,quite entertaining.

The thing with Neve Campbell is, while most actors and actresses who play one role on a television series for a lengthy amount of time often get well remembered for that role and do not always find success elsewhere (such as some of the "Star Trek" casts), Campbell on the other hand is probably always going to be known not for her role in "Party of Five", but for playing Sidney Prescott in the meta-horror "Scream" Trilogy. Which, for Campbell, is not necessarily a bad thing, as not only was the entire "Scream" Trilogy extremely well done, Sidney Prescott is a horror heroine unlike almost any other.However, despite having such a honor to her name and career, Neve manages to get a variety of interesting roles, such as the one of Missy Lofton in "Lost Junction", an unusual film that for quite some time you may wonder what the point of it is. The film revolves around the meeting of Campbell's Missy and hottie Billy Burke's Jimmy McGee. The chemistry between Campbell and Burke is terrific and their characters are well-defined in terms of the context.What goes on between Missy and Jimmy in the small town of Lost Junction is interesting to a point, but becomes long and drawn out. The flashbacks are irritating and the story seems to go nowhere for quite some time. The supporting characters are rather uninteresting, except for Jake Busey, who for the first time surprised me in his role as a paraplegic. Despite Burke's charm and Campbell's skill, "Lost Junction" doesn't really add up to much, and therefore, is aptly titled.

The opening shot of this pleasing film is enhanced by buoyant scoring from Normand Corbeil, and this reveals to viewers that the work that they are about to see is not meant to be noirish in nature, but instead, in an actor's scenario such as this, a general tincture of incongruity is to be established from the outset. Director Peter Masterson, with assistance from lead Neve Campbell, ensures that this is accomplished, while her co-lead Billy Burke consistently provides a foil for Campbell, both being aided by a well-crafted script credited to Jeff Cole, who also produces here. Drifter Jimmy McGee (Burke) is stranded with his broken-down automobile along a back road in an unidentified state in the American South when he is fortunately given a ride from Missy Lofton (Campbell), driving her vintage convertible, but he soon learns that Missy has more than altruism behind her offer of a lift, because she takes McGee with her to her bank in the small town of Lost Junction whereupon she withdraws her entire savings of over $320,000, after which she shows Jimmy the contents of her car's trunk: her dead husband. This all proves to be a bagful with which bewildered Jimmy must deal, and he decides to set off, by foot this time, along the same country road upon which Missy had found him, but she has other ideas and will not permit him to go his own way, Jimmy therefore discovering that he is tied to a woman whose sinister background is more startling than he could have expected, and the two of them, in addition to all other main characters from the screenplay, dovetail to a climactic meeting back in Lost Junction. The film's storyline unfolds in an interesting manner, and solid performances are turned in by the cast, with Campbell's reading being particularly effective, and director Masterson paces his scenes correctly, permitting the narrative's admittedly bizarre events to develop within a well-detailed and naturalistic framework. The editing of Peter Frank and cinematography by Thomas Burstyn, the latter utilizing beautiful Quebec locations, are invaluable, with all shooting occurring during daylight hours for this film that, largely as a result, becomes a whimsical character study that emphasizes its elements of mystery and romance, thereupon further negating any possible connection to the Noir genre.

Honestly, I had some doubts when I looked at the cover, but once I put it in the DVD player, I fell in love with it. It's on my Christmas List! It got pretty funny when Jake Busey finally came in, about half-way through. He put so much humor into it, it was great.I absolutely love it, even though the cover is pretty miss-leading.MUST watch to appreciate! It can be a little confusing, so you have to pay attention a lot. Of course when your favorite actor (Busey) is in it, you HAVE to, and CAN'T help it! So, I wish you lots of luck with this. It's so funny! Also, I thought the movie was very well put together, and the ending was a huge shock. It was very refreshing, and a great change to all the movies that are put together today. I mean, how many times have we seen the endings with everyone running off to paradise with each other? It's so old. This is a great ending.