With: Beau Bridges, Rob Mayes, Sam Hennings, TJ Power, Lee Brice, Pam Tillis, Jennifer Bowles, Sandra Lee-Oain Thomas, Wilbur T. Fitzgerald, Brett Gentile, Ezekiel Bridges
|
Written by: William Wages & Phillip Rob Bellury
|
Directed by: William Wages
|
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language
|
Running Time: 113
|
|
Date: 03/15/2024
|
|
|
|
Loss Country
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
As free-wheeling and laid-back as an ol' country song, William Wages's drama The Neon Highway, about the music biz, never has much at stake, and these good ol' boys don't show much emotion, but it still manages to touch the heart.
Hopeful musicians Wayne Collins (Rob Mayes) and his brother Lloyd (T.J. Power) take to the stage to play their song "The Neon Highway." The song goes over well, and record company people approach Wayne about a deal, so long as Lloyd is not involved. On the way home, the brothers argue, and there's a car crash.
Seven years later, Wayne works for a telecommunications company, installing hardware. On one job he meets Claude Allen (Beau Bridges), once a legendary country star, now living alone and out of the limelight. Wayne plays his song for Claude, and it inspires him to try for a comeback. Promising to hit up all his old connections for favors, the two head for Nashville. But life has other plans.
To start, The Neon Highway works as well as it does because the song (also called "The Neon Highway") is actually as good as everyone says it is. When music industry types hear it and express their enthusiasm, it doesn't ring false.
The other reason it works as well as it does is Beau Bridges, the older brother of Jeff Bridges, who won an Oscar for playing another washed-up country singer in Crazy Heart. Beau makes us believe that he really is an old-time country singing star, his ego sometimes getting in the way of his humanity.
Lead actor Rob Mayes can really sing, but plays his role close to the chest. It's only in his interactions with the strong supporting cast that feelings spill out. (Sam Hennings and Sandra Lee-Oian Thomas as a couple running a Nashville motel, and old friends of Claude's, are quite wonderful.)
The storytelling in The Neon Highway is lackadaisical, and the big twist, in which Wayne figures out a way to get the song out in the world, is almost an afterthought, with little suspense involved, but it works in its own quiet way.
|
