The story of a man coming out of prison after 30 years because of the three-strike rule, Adopt A Highway is one of the surprise delights of the festival so far, not because Ethan Hawke is brilliant in the lead role – no surprises there – but because such a mature, assured and accomplished effort is the first time film from actor, now-turned writer/director, Logan Marshall-Green.
Without family or a support network and straight off the bus from prison, Russell Millings (Hawke) struggles to adapt to normal life but somehow finds a job cleaning dishes at a fast food restaurant. Earning his manager’s trust to lock-up, late one night his life is about to change again, as he hears something when taking the night’s trash out to the dumpsters out back, discovering an abandoned baby in a sports bag.
Overwhelmed by the situation, Millings gives in to his desire to experience something he missed out on while behind bars. He doesn’t call the cops and instead tries to care for the baby himself, but still needing to hold down his job, and keep up meetings with his parole officer, it’s not long before he starts to regret the situation he’s put himself in.
Adopt A Highway the film quite excellently depicts the struggle to adapt back to normal life for ex-cons, showing how the recently released are just thrown back into society with little to no support. Social norms have changed, in the film Millings doesn’t know what email or the internet is, never mind how to use it, and the film does a great job of portraying this as such a steep learning curve.
Of course Adopt A Highway is helped out by Ethan Hawke who is a tour-de-force. It’s such a subtle yet deeply affecting performance, playing a man that quite quickly becomes out of his depth, but is never flustered. Going with the flow when the film takes a change of course for an excellent third act, absolutely not going where you expecting yet it still draws to a very satisfying close.
His first time behind the camera, Adopt A Highway is a hugely impressive debut from actor-turned-filmmaker Logan Marshall-Green. It is a film told with measure, with confidence, and another type of feature from the normally horror-focused Blumhouse Productions. To say they took a chance on Logan Marshall-Green doesn’t give the filmmaker enough credit, but they deserve praise for backing this sort of film when the box office is otherwise dominated by franchises, and original stories often struggle to find a home. Hopefull y the Blumhouse name, the powerhouse Ethan Hawke, and old OC-fans wanting to see what Trey is up to now he’s grown up, mean Adopt A Highway finds the audience it deserves.