Mad Love

When Matt (O'Donnell) gets a load of Casey (Barrymore), he has no idea what he's looking at. She's wild and impetuous and just a little crazy. A lot crazy, her father says, forbidding the relationship and putting her in psychiatric care when things get heavy. The young lovers hit the road, and the radio is their compass ('If the next song's country, we go north, if it's rock, we go south'), guiding them from watery Seattle to dusty New Mexico (rock'n'roll all the way). Things get heavier. Written by Paula Milne (The Politician's Wife) and directed by Antonia Bird (Priest), Brit interlopers in Hollywood, this has the elements of a '90s Splendor in the Grass, even a Lilith. When Barrymore says she likes 'rudeness, noise, honesty, danger' you tend to believe her, but sadly this movie has been Disneyed along the way, it's altogether too polite, quiet, false and safe. A disappointment.