The movie had a simple plot. A mass murderer, Eric, who killed a girl friend and his parents when 15 is released at 18 because he was tried as a juvenile because he was on antidepressants. So we know the guy has some serious issues and is labeled a psychopath; there is no doubt what so ever he is the killer. He goes to live with his dead mother's sister, Aunt Teresa, played by Laura Dern. There he is comfortable and has his old mother's car and seems quite well off. The Aunt tries to give him a break and be supportive. The driving force is Detective Cristofuoro, played by good old Russel Crowe. We seem him tending his comatose wife in some sanitarium as a semi retired Buffalo NY cop who original busted Eric, He is on Eric's case, but more in a fatherly way than in some Dirty Harry way but he feels Eric is a time bomb. In his last week in reform school, a cute female teenage prisoner Maria, made a pass at Eric and gave him a note telling him to meet up with her cause she is getting out soon too. So we have the troubled young killer Eric and the fastidious detective cleaning up his house, his comatose wife & old unsolved cases, all dogging him.
Enter Lorelei, the opening character, She is a sexually abused, more in a peeping tom way, waif who lives with her loser mother and her straight looking but twisted boyfriend, She is obsessed with Eric based on a chance encounter before he was arrested but is unknown by Eric. She lies to her mom then uses her body to get rides and money to Eric's aunt's house where she hides in the back of his car, his dead mother's Volvo station wagon. Eric, who told his aunt he is going to Albany to see colleges is really trying to meet up with his prison admirer Maria, So Loralei startles him when she reveals herself from her hiding place and almost causes a wreck on US 9W, a funny road to take to get from Buffalo to Albany when that is a north south Road from Rockland County NY City area to Albany, maybe he should have used 5 & 20 instead? Okay, she has issues and he is trying to politely dump her the whole time but she dogs him. There is no sex between them but she definitely wants to be hurt or killed by him as some sort of twisted intimacy thing. This is where it gets psychological since he does have issues but restrains himself. The whole time the detective is dogging him and he is aware of it yet cavalier, leaving a cross hanging from the detectives' rear view mirror.
The best part of this movie is that it's a character study of three different characters with wildly different but twisted motivations. It isn't the best film of it's type but it is worthy and unexploitive considering the issues involved.
Enter Lorelei, the opening character, She is a sexually abused, more in a peeping tom way, waif who lives with her loser mother and her straight looking but twisted boyfriend, She is obsessed with Eric based on a chance encounter before he was arrested but is unknown by Eric. She lies to her mom then uses her body to get rides and money to Eric's aunt's house where she hides in the back of his car, his dead mother's Volvo station wagon. Eric, who told his aunt he is going to Albany to see colleges is really trying to meet up with his prison admirer Maria, So Loralei startles him when she reveals herself from her hiding place and almost causes a wreck on US 9W, a funny road to take to get from Buffalo to Albany when that is a north south Road from Rockland County NY City area to Albany, maybe he should have used 5 & 20 instead? Okay, she has issues and he is trying to politely dump her the whole time but she dogs him. There is no sex between them but she definitely wants to be hurt or killed by him as some sort of twisted intimacy thing. This is where it gets psychological since he does have issues but restrains himself. The whole time the detective is dogging him and he is aware of it yet cavalier, leaving a cross hanging from the detectives' rear view mirror.
The best part of this movie is that it's a character study of three different characters with wildly different but twisted motivations. It isn't the best film of it's type but it is worthy and unexploitive considering the issues involved.