Crossroads (2002 film)

Lucy (Britney Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana), and Mimi (Taryn Manning) are friends in a small Georgia town. As children, they bury a "wish box", vowing to dig it up on their high school graduation and pledging to stay best friends. However, as the trio grow up, their friendship fades: Lucy becomes the introverted valedictorian, Kit becomes the most popular girl in school, and Mimi becomes an outcast from a trailer park, facing teenage pregnancy. On the night of graduation, they reunite to open the "wish box”, remembering their old wishes: Mimi wanted to travel to California, Lucy wanted to find her mother, and Kit wanted to get married. Kit and Lucy try to convince Mimi, who is 5 months pregnant, not to go to Los Angeles to audition for a record company. However, the next morning they decide to go to LA together, Mimi for the audition, Kit to visit her fiancé, and Lucy to find her mother in Tucson, Arizona.

After Lucy departs without notifying her overbearing father Pete (Dan Aykroyd), the trio set out in a yellow 1973 Buick Skylark convertible with Ben (Anson Mount). During the trip, the car breaks down, and with little money, Mimi suggests they sing karaoke at a local bar for tips. The girls dress up and take the stage, but Mimi develops stage fright and is unable to sing. Lucy takes her place and is a hit, and the girls earn enough money to fix the car and continue on their way.

They check into a motel, and Kit tells her friends a rumor that Ben had been released from jail after killing someone. Uneasy for most of the journey, the girls finally confront Ben, who reveals that he was in jail for driving his stepsister across state borders without parental consent because his stepfather was abusing her. Lucy and Ben grow closer, especially after she reads him a poem she wrote. The girls have their first honest conversation since they were kids: Lucy reveals that her mother left her and her father when she was a child, but is convinced her mother wants to find her but is too scared; Kit, overweight as a child, has an overbearing mother who sent her to "fat camp" but now cannot stand that her daughter is more beautiful than her; Mimi reveals that her baby's father is not her ex-boyfriend, but a man who raped her at a party, and that she is planning to put the baby up for adoption.

In Tucson, Lucy finds her mother Caroline, who is unhappy to see her and has remarried with two young sons. Caroline reveals that Lucy was an unintended pregnancy and that she wants nothing to do with her, and Lucy leaves heartbroken. At the motel, Ben comforts Lucy and impresses her by writing music to her poem. Lucy rejoins the others and they reach Los Angeles, where Kit brings Mimi to surprise her fiancé, Dylan. Alone together in the hotel, Lucy has sex for her first time with Ben and they fall in love. Kit and Mimi arrive at Dylan's apartment to find he is cheating on Kit. She then realizes it was Dylan who raped Mimi, and punches him. Running away, Mimi falls down the stairs and loses her baby. Her friends comfort her as she comes to terms with her loss, having decided to keep the baby.

Lucy calls her father to take them back home, and Kit and Mimi tell her that she should go to the audition in Mimi's place. Lucy declines and prepares to leave with her father, but realizes that everything that she has done has been to please her father instead of herself. Lucy tells her father to let her go and runs after Ben, and they kiss. She and the girls head to the audition with Ben and receive a standing ovation after their performance of Lucy's song, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman".

The girls bury their “wish box” at the beach, this time deciding not to make any wishes for the future but to focus on the present and their friendship.[2]

In early 2001, Spears said that she had plans to make her film debut.[4] She and her team then created a concept for it,[4] which was later developed by Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes.[5] Spears commented that she "talked to [Rhimes] and told her what I wanted the movie to be about and she elaborated on it. It was my little project. When you do a movie, I think you have to be really passionate about it. I was having a lot of offers, but this is something my heart was into."[5] A press conference was held during the Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale (MIDEM) in Cannes, France, on January 19, 2002, where Spears also premiered the film.[6]

Filming for Crossroads initiated in March 2001 in Baton Rouge and Hammond, Louisiana, near Spears' hometown.[7] Due to the fact that Spears was also recording her third studio album along with the film's production, filming only wrapped up after six months.[7] Additional scenes were filmed in Los Angeles, California.[7] Crossroads had a total budget of $10 million; a relatively low budget by industry standards.[8] According to the Louisiana Film and Video Commission, the film was originally titled What Friends are For.[8] Spears described it as a teen movie that deals with real issues that normal teenagers live on a daily basis.[9] She continued to explain the film's content, saying that it "is about this journey that the three of us best friends take, finding ourselves and what we want out of life and getting our friendship back. Friends are all you have at the end of the day. When your boyfriend breaks up with you, who do you call? Your girlfriend. I just love that message."[9]

Justin Long, who plays one of Lucy's best friends from high school, thought that Crossroads is "like a road trip buddy movie for girls."[10] Long also said that he was impressed by Spears' work ethic, commenting that "she could not have been more down to earth. She's the sweetest girl. After 10 minutes, I forgot she was a big pop star."[10] Anson Mount, who plays Ben, revealed that actor Robert De Niro ran a few of Spears' lines with him while rehearsing for the film. Mount revealed that De Niro called the singer "a sweet girl" and convinced him to do Crossroads.[11]

• Crossroads on IMDb
• Crossroads at Box Office Mojo
• Crossroads at Rotten Tomatoes