True Brit

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Cast:</span> Britney Spears, Dan Aykroyd<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Directed by:</span>Tamra Davis<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Rating:</span> ***<br />IT had to happen. After all, how long could the reigning princess of pop resist the temptation to walk the road on which many other divas have travelled in the hope of translating chart success into film careers?Based on a concept developed by the internationally renowned performer herself, Crossroads clearly aims to launch Britney Spears to stardom.Fortuitously, in her inaugural cinematic effort, the singing sensation copes with the acting demands with somewhat greater conviction than either Mariah Carey or Mandy Moore in their recent movie debuts (Glitter, A Walk To Remember).With her likeable screen presence and goofy charm, Ms Spears keeps us fairly engrossed in this conventional coming-of-age drama.She glides comfortably into the role of Lucy, a small-town gal who has been raised by her earnest but domineering father (Aykroyd).Having just graduated from high school, the musically inclined (what else!) teenager impulsively sets off on a road trip to California. Accompanied by a couple of childhood friends (Taryn Manning-Zoe Saldana), the three gal pals accept a ride from a mysterious young guitar player (Anson Mount).Their odyssey is punctuated by visits to a karaoke bar (where Britney performs I love rock-n-roll) and a confrontation with her mother who had abandoned Lucy when she was a baby.Predictably, too, en route our virtuous heroine sheds her virginal image and, at the first opportunity, heads straight for a bedroom dalliance with the macho guitarist. In other words, we''re back in the sex-and-the-single-girl syndrome.The script skirts with mawkisness during the last half-hour. Worse, whenever the direction hits shallow spots, which is quite often, the film strives to stay afloat on the strength of its busy, finger-snapping soundtrack.Besides lip-synching to songs by Madonna, ''N Sync and Shania Twain, Britney belts out her own rousing rendition of I''m not a girl at the film''s climax.The teenybopper Britney brigade is more than likely to be entertained by this unabashed `chick flick''. The rest might find Crossroads just about makes for an okey-dokey matinee. </div> </div>