WORLD TRAVELER

It's hard not to recall lyrics of the Talking Heads song “Once in a Lifetime” while watching the performance of rising actor Billy Crudup in WORLD TRAVELER. He's unforgettable as Cal, an outwardly-successful husband, father and architect who one day bolts, simply leaves, going as far and as fast from his West Village residence as he can. All because he asked the question, “Where does that highway go to?” and sought the answer. On his impulsive cross-country journey Cal takes work where he can find it, as a day laborer, and takes pleasures in a similar fashion, getting drunk and consorting with hitchhikers and casual sex partners, like damaged young mother Dulcie (Julianne Moore). As the rest stops and cheap motels blur into each other, however, Cal can't escape the fact that he's running away from something, not toward anything, and what he left is more precious than the greener pastures that he hoped to find. Only as he nears the closest thing to a destination ? a reunion with his estranged father (David Keith), does the fugitive architect realize that he will always be the designer of his own discontent, trading one setting for another. WORLD TRAVELER reinvents the road movie as its misguided hero searches for exits from his own pain and maps the way to self-discovery.