Back Roads
⋆⋆⋆ out of four stars
Rated: Not rated.
Theater: Lakeville
The dysfunctional family at the center of this dramatic thriller, which marks the directorial debut of actor Alex Pettyfer, is so twisted that every 10 minutes or so there is a new revelation meant to shock, and this presumably goes back to Tawni O'Dell's novel, on which the film is based.
The way this story is told also might have something to do with the participation of Adrian Lyne, who co-wrote the script with O'Dell. This is Lyne's first film credit since "Unfaithful" in 2002, and the particular emphasis on sex feels like it is his handiwork, so to speak.
Pettyfer also stars as Harley, a young man who has had to take responsibility for raising his three sisters after his mother (Juliette Lewis) was jailed for murdering their father. This information is relayed to us in a slightly awkward title card at the beginning of the film. We then see Harley in a police station answering questions about having murdered an older woman with whom he had been having an affair.
In many other films, these would be the only two points needed to tell a story. But this is so full of secrets that these seeming giveaways at the beginning are only gestures toward the real, sick truth.
This is an accomplished movie from Pettyfer. It shows his interest in the scarier byways of life, which seemed clear in his performance last year in "The Strange Ones," a disturbing and neglected movie about child abuse that seems now like a companion piece to "Back Roads," a film that stares unflinchingly at some of the rougher human experiences.
