‘Highway 61’ By Hal Hinson Washington Post Staff Writer June 09, 1992

Director: Bruce McDonald Cast: Valerie Buhagiar; Don McKeller; Earl Pastko sensuality and language Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

It's a road movie about the struggles of a ditsy heavy-metal fugitive named Jackie (Valerie Buhagiar) to smuggle a stash of stolen cocaine from Canada to New Orleans in the dead body of a man she claims is her brother -- a disjointed, '90s redux of "Easy Rider." Without the motorcycles.

The mode of transport down the long highway to Louisiana is a '63 Ford Galaxie 500 belonging to a small-town Canadian barber and would-be musician named Pokey (played by the film's writer, Don McKellar), who discovers the body of the unidentified man frozen stiff in a bathtub outside his shop. After no one claims the corpse, Jackie seizes the opportunity to use the body as the perfect hiding place for her contraband.

She also sees Pokey, who's about 100 watts short of bright, as the perfect accomplice. Pokey's existence in Pickerel Falls is numbingly dull, and he longs for the larger life. So before long, the casket containing the mystery corpse and the drugs is strapped to the top of Pokey's Ford, and this misfit couple is on its way.

For the rest of the film, we're treated to a nearly endless series of odd twists and misadventures, most of which are meant to be much wackier than they actually are. Initially, the lack of chemistry between the fellow travelers is intentional. They're opposites, these two: Jackie, who has dyed her flowing curls a neon orange, is a wild woman; while Pokey, who wears an expression of constant befuddlement, is a shrinking violet. To get him to sleep with her, Jackie has to literally put a gun to Pokey's head. Yet, even after the thaw occurs, there's still not much heat between the two stars. As a couple, they never really connect.

Nothing else in the movie does either. The film's events seem arbitrary; other than a spirit of funky absurdism, there's no logical thread linking them together. The film's other main figure is a deranged character named Mr. Skin (Earl Pastko) who believes he is Satan and, because of a prior contract for the soul of the deceased, accuses Jackie of absconding with property that is rightfully his. But whenever this nut case is on screen, we feel that we've left the main road; he never seems to really fit into the movie. Plus, Pastko is the sort of extravagantly obnoxious actor who makes your skin crawl every time he leers into the camera.

By the time the movie meanders to its climax, McDonald has completely killed our interest. If he ever had a point to make, it gets lost somewhere along the side of the road. For his next trip, he should pack a map.

"Highway 61" is rated R for sensuality and language.

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