Zoe

A wonderful movie about two characters crossing paths at just the right moment in their lives. The understated Jenny Seacrest plays Cecilia, a recently divorced Brit driving through America's Southwest to bury her mother's ashes. Vanessa Zima is Zoe, a sweetly innocent teen escaping a troubled home with her two hoodlum friends (Stephi Lineburg, Victoria Davis), on their way to mystical New Mexico. Cecilia ends up giving the teens a ride, and a special bond develops between her and Zoe. Cecilia finds her mom's old desert cabin, along with her mom's native American lover, Red Shirt (Gordon Tootoosis). As Cecilia learns more about her mother, Zoe seeks enlightenment at the Indian burial grounds. The metaphors for death and reawakening are plenty, and I was entranced by the spiritual journeys of these two characters.

Director Deborah Attoinese shows a sure hand as she deftly deals with weighty issues while keeping the characters real. The script, by Attoinese and Amy Dawes, features characters asking themselves some of life's biggest questions, yet it never loses the charm of these characters nor the fun tone of the movie. The performances are all top notch, and Zoe moves at just the right pace. Zoe looks great, and the desert locales beckon. This movie is a hidden treasure, and it deserves to be seen.

This movie was pretty well made, seeing as how it took about 10 years to make. The director is a very nice woman who was at the screening. The movie is about 3 troubled girls who run away from home to go to Los Angeles. The problem is one girl, Zoe, wants to go to New Mexico to find her spiritual guides (she is one eighth Cherokee, as she learns in History class)....along the way she meets an odd British woman who happens to be heading for New Mexico...this movie was very entertaining, but the all-country soundtrack becomes very repetitive.

No car crashes, no explosions, no battle scenes -- just a gentle tale about two people looking for their place in the world. Vanessa Zima is wonderful, a mature performance far beyond her years.

And Jenny Seagrove -- one of my favorites -- proves once again that her range and talent are virtually endless. She takes this role and wraps every emotion around it, she cradles it throughout the movie, and she presents her character to the audience, vulnerable but never tentative. Some day enough people will come to know this underappreciated performer, and she will receive the credit for which she is long overdue. Flippin' shame the movie didn't find a distributor, but take heart: ZOE will be coming out on DVD in June 2003.