Crossroads MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +3 Content: -2

Three 10-year-old friends bury a box of future dreams and promise to dig it up when they graduate from high school. But even the best of friends go separate ways as Lucy (Britney Spears) focuses on academics to become class valedictorian and Kit (Zo Saldana) aims for popularity and homecoming queen. Mimi (Taryn Manning), pregnant and considered trailer trash, barely graduates. But when they meet to dig up the box, all three discover their dreams still unfulfilled. However, Mimi plans to make her dream of seeing the world come true and escape their Georgia home by traveling to a music audition in Hollywood. Kit joins the trip to visit her fianc supposedly stuck in a California college for the summer. And Lucy reluctantly leaves her divorced dad (Dan Ackroyd) to find the mother who abandoned them when Lucy was three. Hitching a cross-country ride with Ben (Anson Mount), a musician with a rumored criminal past, the three discover that some dreams dont come true, but true friends help you discover new dreams. While no new or spectacular elements emerge, the story is fair entertainment, but legions of Britney fans will no doubt swell the audiences.

Despite the PG-13 rating, girls of all ages who consider Britney a role model, will want to see the movie. Sadly, the film sends mixed and disappointing messages. In one of the first scenes, Lucy, somewhat prophetically, dances in her underwear while lip-syncing a Madonna song. Later shes teased by Kit about being a virgin, which leads to a graduation party where she wears skimpy bikini underwear in bed with a boy. However, she stops at removing her bra and, after reconsidering the reasons for having sex, decides she wants the first time to be special. Which seriously disappoints her nerdy male lab partner. Although her auto mechanic father secures a summer job for her, Lucy feels she needs to find out why her mother abandoned them. When the car breaks down, the girls take on a karaoke bars contest to earn repair money. The performance offers the suggestive moves and teasing lyrics familiar to Spears fans. It also leads to a raid on a hotel mini-bar in their room and underage drinking as the girls share stories about their sexual experience. Pregnant Mimi refrains from drinking but says its not for the sake of the baby, but that drinking led to her pregnancy. After a surprise visit to her mother, Lucy learns that her mother really didnt want her. Despite Britneys public comments about saving herself for marriage, her character is shown in bed with Ben, implying theyve had premarital sex. When an accident injures Mimi, Lucys dad shows up to take them home. He apologizes for chewing her out on her calls home, saying he was upset at her actions, not her. When shes obedient to his taking her home, he supports her audition as a singer. Along with the messages implying teen drinking and premarital sex being acceptable, the girls use some profanity and a finger gesture. Despite Britneys popularity, CROSSROADS is a dead end.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Paramount Pictures, 5555 Melrose Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90038