Reese Witherspoon: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances€

5. Vanessa Lutz - Freeway (1996)

Teenager Vanessa Lutz, on her own after her mother is arrested, sets out to find her grandmother€™s house, and hitches a ride from apparently decent driver Bob Wolverton (played by Kiefer Sutherland) who turns out to be a serial killer. Fortunately, she is packing a pistol and shoots the big bad Wolverton. Leaving him for dead in a secluded forest, she grabs his wallet and takes off in his car. Too bad Wolverton didn't die. Later he calls the cops and she is sent to a juvenile facility where she must protect herself from attacks from the other inmates before she can escape and get her revenge. Before she became one of Hollywood€™s go-to rom-com heroines, Reese embraced her dark side in Freeway, with stunning results. The film works so well, in large part due to Witherspoon€™s no-holds-barred performance. She gives Vanessa a yearning sweetness that leaves you rooting for her basic humanity, all while pairing her character€™s susceptibility with the shockingly tough veneer of a seasoned criminal. Add in a trucker€™s mouth, and you€™ve got the astonishing portrait of a young woman prepared to fight for her life, at all costs. It's assumed that Reese really dug deep for her inspiration for the role. However, in light of her recent drunk and disorderly arrest a few years ago, she might€™ve had a little Vanessa in her all along.