HONKY TONK FREEWAY involves a small Florida tourist town named Ticaw and the people who live there, led by William Devane playing the part of the Mayor/Preacher Kirby T. Calo who also operates a hotel and tiny wildlife safari park. The town's major draw is a water-skiing elephant named Bubbles. When the state highway commission builds a freeway adjacent to the town, Devane slips an official 10,000 dollars to assure an off ramp. The off ramp doesn't come so the townsfolk literally paint the town pink to attract visitors. Meanwhile, we are introduced to several characters from various parts of the United States all for one reason or another are heading to Florida. We know they will all end up in Ticaw but finding out why and how is half the fun. There are bank robbers from New York (George Dzundza, Joe Grifasi) who pick up a cocaine dealing hitchhiker (Daniel Stern), a Chicago copy machine repairman and wannabe children's author Duane Hansen (Beau Bridges) who picks up a waitress Carmen Odessa Shelby (Beverly D'Angelo) who is carrying her mother's ashes to Florida, a dentist and his family (Howard Hesseman, Teri Garr, Peter Billingsly) vacationing cross country in their RV, an elderly woman Carol (Jessica Tandy) with a drinking problem and her loving husband Sherm (Hume Cronyn, of course), two nuns (mother superior Geraldine Page, novice nun Deborah Rush), a wannabe country song writer hauling a playful rhino and other wild animals to Ticaw, and more. This is a very funny movie with quirky interesting characters, good actors, a great director (John Schlesinger who helmed Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man and The Falcon and the Snowman) and a mix of slapstick comedy in the tradition of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and biting satire of American small towns such as Cold Turkey. Think Mayberry meets Picket Fences, or Hal Needham meets Robert Altman. A fun film with where half the fun is to see who's going to show up in the film and what's going to happen next.
