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Sky Island Films

NEW YORK -- Writer-director Dylan McCormick's drama about the troubled relationship between a failed writer (Frederick Weller) with daddy issues and the artist (Greer Goodman) who left him to pursue her passion in the big city is more earnest than insightful. Filled with indie film cliches, including a country/folk soundtrack that cues you into every emotion, Four Lane Highway is the sort of effort geared to make an impact at rural film festivals.

The title is symbolic, naturally, referring to the journeys undertaken by the film's four main characters: They are Sean (Weller), the son of a famous novelist who has abandoned his writing in favor of manual labor and hitting on younger college girls; his best friend, Lyle (Reg Rogers), a serious alcoholic and, of course, a natural quipster; Molly (Goodman), a painter who refuses to accept Sean's lack of artistic ambition; and Molly's roommate, Sasha (Elizabeth Rodriguez), a party girl addicted to one-night stands.

The confusing screenplay jumps back and forth in time, from the beginning of Sean and Molly's relationship years earlier, to the present, when he travels to New York, Lyle in tow, in an effort to get her back.

Neither the characters nor the situations are unique enough to sustain interest, and the film suffers from the performers either underplaying (Weller) or hamming it up (Rogers and Rodriguez). Only Goodman manages to be natural and unaffected in her role, though she too is ultimately hampered by her character's lack of distinctiveness.

• Four different people, four different hang-ups, four different dreams all heading in the same direction - New York City. New York is where a lot of people test their strengths against the world. It is a force that pulls many people in. Many leave their loved ones behind in search of their dreams in this cold, grey city. A person can change after moving to New York and this is what the main character of Four Lane Highway regretfully finds out. A young man, Sean (Fred Weller), who used to be a writer, to the extent of even being published in the New Yorker, is now just a laborer working and living in a small college town in Maine. He gave up his dream of being of working writer because of all the complications that come with it and the lack of support from his accomplished father. After a day of work,

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The 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, announced films in four competitive categories Wednesday. The festival, which runs April 19-May 1 in Lower Manhattan, will feature fictional films and documentaries in two categories, dubbed NY, NY Narrative Features and NY, NY Documentary Features. The fictional features, which range from dramas focusing on the effects of 9/11 to slapstick comedy and suburban tales, include: Adam & Steve, directed by Craig Chester; Alchemy, Evan Oppenheimer; Bittersweet Place, Alexandra Brodsky; Conventioneers, Mora Stephens; The F Word, Jed Weintrob; Four Lane Highway, Dylan McCormick; Great New Wonderful, Danny Leiner; Laura Smiles, Jason Ruscio; Life on the Ledge, Lewis Helfer; Love, Vladan Nikolic; Puzzlehead, James Bai; The Reception, John G. Young; Red Doors, Georgia Lee; Rockaway, Mark Street; Satellite, Jeff Winner; and Slingshot, Jay Alaimo.