LOST JUNCTION
US, 2001, 95 minutes, Colour.
Neve Campbell, Billy Burke, Jake Busey, Charles Edward Powell, David Gow, Michel Perron.
Directed by Peter Masterson.
Lost Junction has more than a touch of the film noir. A car breaks down on a Highway in the middle of nowhere and a young woman, Missy, pulls up to help. The driver is played by Billy Burke. The woman by Neve Campbell. The audience immediately sees that she has a dead body in the trunk of her car. And she persuades the young man to accompany her to town and back her up in her visits to the bank to withdraw her husband’s money.
There are emotional complications, the audience suspicious about Missy and what she has done. There are also emotional complications with Jimmy – which are revealed later, his blaming himself over causing his friend to be a paraplegic.
The plot is not as straightforward as all that. Missy has had an abortion and has married the doctor. He has been brutal towards her. Eventually, Jimmy with his injured friend turn up to help Missy.
The film was directed by Peter Masterson who directed Geraldine Page in her Oscar-winning performance in The Trip to Bountiful.
1. The title? The small town in the south? The overtones – crossroads, people and travellers being lost?
2. The town, the roads, isolated, homes, shops, diners, police precincts? The contrast with New Orleans? The musical score?
3. Jimmy Mc Gee’s story, on the road, the car breaking down, Missy driving by, her proposition, the audience knowing that the body was in the trunk of the car? His agreeing to Missy, the meal, staying with her, going to the bank and her story about the transplant, meeting the sheriff? Listening to a story about Doc? Not wanting to go to New Orleans? Her persuading him?
4. The later revelation about his story, the friends in the past, the quarry, the drinking, pushing Matt over the cliff? His long apologies and weeping? The disappearance for years? His nightmares about the event?
5. Missy, audience reaction to her, the body in the car? Her wilfulness, her demands, on Jimmy, on the bank manager, withdrawing all her cash?
6. Her not telling the full truth, the eventual emerging of the truth, Doc and his abusiveness, the background of her abortion, the assault by her father, staying with Doc, his brutality, her reaction? The help from Porter? To bury Doc in New Orleans with his first wife as he wished?
7. The complications of lies? In New Orleans, the encounter with Porter, the money, his brutality? Jimmy and his decision to return to Charleston, meeting up with Matt, telling the story, the two returning to New Orleans?
8. The attack on Porter, getting the money, stopping at the diner, the waitress and her story, her interest in Missy and Jimmy, the return, Missy coming into the diner?
9. The return home, the sheriff, the arrest, Jimmy in jail, Porter in jail, Missy in jail? The sheriff, sympathetic?
10. Letting Missy go, the funeral and Porter’s intrusive interruption? The minister hurrying away?
11. The resolution of the case, Missy innocent, Jimmy and love, Matt getting the job with Shorty? The future?
