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L.I.E. Send This Review to a Friend
The title stands for the Long Island Expressway, which becomes somewhat of a metaphor for a highway of life that Howie Blitzer, a 15-year-old middle-class youngster in a Long Island suburb must learn to traverse. References to the tragic highway deaths of singer and composer Harry Chapin and film director Alan Pakula indicate the perils the metaphor means to impart. Howie joins boys who rob houses for fun, which gives him status and something apart from his home life with his father, who has problems of his own and doesn't hone in on the difficulties his son is facing.
Matters escalate when the youngsters decide to rob the home of Big John Harrigan (Brian Cox). Paul Franklin Dano nails the right amount of loneliness and appeal as Howie, and Billy Kay is effective as Howie's pal Gary, who has been involved sexually with Big John, who pays him for the service. Life is a mess beneath the façade of suburban normalcy.
Director Michael Cuesta and his co-screenwriters Stephen M. Ryder and Gerald Cuesta get the right nuances to make the portraits absorbing. There is talent at work here, but as the story moves along, one can tire of dealing with the problems encountered. One can feel for Howie and his plight without wanting to spend all that much time following the course of his life. A Lot 47 Film release.
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