# Desert Blue (1998)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    DESERT BLUE

Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Samuel Goldwyn Films Director: Morgan J. Freeman Writer: Morgan J. Freeman Cast: Brendan Sexton III, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, John Heard, Lucinda Jenney, Casey Affleck, Sara Gilbert, Isidra Vega, Ethan Suplee, Michael Ironside, Aunjanue Ellis, Peter Sarsgaard, Noah Taylor, Reese Witherspoon, Daniel von Bargen

Hardly anyone stops at the Bates Motel any more. It's off the main road and may get an occasional customer for its 12 cabins and 12 showers if a motorist gets caught in a blinding storm. Even if a couple of travelers did check in and a) Norman was not particularly attracted to them, b) they didn't bother to take a shower...what would they do with their time? Would they bother looking at the town, talking to the people, seeing what small attraction existed therein? Not at all likely.

In "Desert Blue," by contrast, two people motoring across the California desert do stop off, not because they're stuck in a storm or are experiencing motor trouble. They get out in Baxter, California (population 89) because that's the driver's destination. His name is Lance (John Heard), he's a professor of popular culture now writing a book about small town Americana, and seeks out the hamlet to examine the tallest ice cream cone in the country. What's a story without a conflict, though? No problem. His daughter Skye (Kate Hudson), whom he has dragged along with him, does not share her dad's feelings for civic areas smaller and less hip than L.A. or San Francisco. Skye is the star performer of a cable TV show, well known in her urban circles but quite without fame in a town lacking a single cable station. "Desert Blue" deals with the pleasures she beholds well beyond any she could have imagined. She connects with the teens who make this their home and who, contrary to the popular stereotypes, have no great desire to seek the alleged big pleasures of a metropolitan expanse.

Morgan J. Freeman, who wrote and directed this charming tale, keeps the pace nice and leisurely, the better to have us accept the conversion which the budding actress undergoes. Shades balanced precariously on the bridge of her nose and cell phone in hand, she easily passes muster as the prototype of young stardom while at the same time earning the contempt of the local teens, who include Blue (Brendan Sexton III), his best friend Cale (Ethan Suplee), Cale's girl friend Haley (Isidra Vega) All Terrain Vehicle champion Pete (Casey Affleck), and Pete's spunky girl friend Ely (Christina Ricci). When a truck carrying a secret ingredient for a cola drink explodes, some of its contents spilling over its driver, the incident is about to be written off as a simple vehicular accident. When the driver mysteriously dies, the town is quarantined by the FBI, forcing the urbane Skye to mix with the unworldly townies.

In the typical story, the locals would be fascinated by the star in their presence. In Mr. Freeman's hands, however, conventional expectations are reversed as Skye learns that each of the seemingly faceless young people has tale to unfold, some aspirations to satisfy. Sexton III, known to his core audience of teens and twenty-somethings as a decent kid surrounded by petty thieves in Freeman's "Hurricane Streets" and as a puckish adolescent in Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse," does a particularly fine job. As a mature 19-year-old who adores his recently departed father he is trying to fulfill his dad's dreams of turning the desert sand into an ocean park which would attract a large tourist clientele. That this small-town lad captures the affections of a big-city TV star is made believable by Sexton, whose gentle, natural ways and caring demeanor give the spoiled and cynical Skye a new way of looking at life and a few days of pure fun in a place she least expected to find any.

The audience for this film cannot help being pulled in by the simple pleasures of the kids: fun fights between a team throwing oranges at another group firing potatoes out of a cannon; the disaffected Ely's getting her kicks from dynamiting canoes--who ultimately does bring water to a parched wasteland and whose idea of what to do if this were her last day on earth is to blow herself up together with her parents. The romantic interludes enjoyed by the kids are dittoed by Skye's father and Blue's mom, Caroline (Lucinda Jenney) who enjoy lively discussions in Caroline's coffee shop while FBI Agent Bellows (Michael Ironside) is getting drunk while guarding the road to the quarantined town.

    Not Yet Rated.  Running Time: 90 minutes.  (C) 1998
    Harvey Karten

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews