Redwood Highway (review)

Review by Morayo Sayles

This is a story about how Marie Vaughn (Shirley Knight) finds herself again.

After spending the last 45 years of her life being incredibly prickly and bull-headed, Marie Vaughn learns from the company of strangers and more than a few blisters what life should be all about.

Despite her greatest misgivings and vehement objections, Naomi (Zena Gray), Marie’s only grandchild is getting married and Marie knows she’s the only one who has the guts to tell Naomi what a horrendous mistake she was making.

Michael (James Le Gros), Marie’s long-suffering son tries with no success to convince his mother to come to the wedding.

In the midst of the angst about the wedding, Marie is also struggling with memories of her past emerging with more frequency.

Shirley Knight shines in this often-belabored tale of self-realization and actualization.

In Marie, Ms. Knight managed to balance irascible and prickly, with endearing and understanding. Even though she pushes everyone away from her and is inexhaustibly determined to get her own way, much to the fatigue of everyone around her, Marie is also endearing and you find yourself rooting for her as she treks along Redwood Highway.


Tom Skeritt is the same old silver fox he’s been for the past three decades, which explains why he got top billing for his rather small and innocuous role in the film. The unsung hero of the film is James Le Gros. Le Gros plays the long-suffering son to Knight’s Marie. Michael is as patient as Marie is stubborn and he balances the needs of his daughter with his mother’s demands with great dignity and more importantly, little judgment on his mother’s behavior.

This was a good film.

The end was not a surprise, indeed there were many moments that felt incredibly familiar, however Knight and her merry cast managed to keep everything from belabored and overly cliché.