Sean Penn can be a great actor, but with the Crossing Guard he displays a hit or miss attitude in the believability of his characters. It starts with a given for a gripping premise: a man torn completely psychologically from himself, Freddy (Jack Nicholson) finds out the man who killed his daughter in a drunk driving accident is released from prison after only six years. And, he'll go and kill him. Why he'll kill him, also a psychological pull, is that he's more so for his ex-wife Mary (Angelica Huston) than he is for himself. It's as much, if not more, about pride than it is about vengeance.
But through this premise, and the divide between self-destructive, drunk Freddy and the guilt-ridden, morose John Booth, Penn paints his characters sometimes into corners even when things become most intriguing. It's appropriate, I suppose, that Penn decided to dedicate the film to Charles Bukowski, as it probably alludes a lot to the moods of the characters in those books. But in putting across moods so much he almost forgets that his actors need believable circumstances to follow. One device, for example, is the whole "you got three days" angle Freddy pulls with John when he first confronts him in his trailer. There's also the sort of romance-in-limbo between John and another woman (Robin Wright Penn).
But what I didn't expect was that the actors almost don't, but ultimately do, rise above the contrivances of the script. There's even a great scene between Nicholson and Huston in a restaurant the night the murder is supposed to take place. Scenes like this, and a tear-ridden phone call from Freddy in a red-tinted room, are powerful and connect with the overall theme of loss in the film. Yet as a director Penn doesn't pull enough with his characters and mood to make it as compelling as it can be. He also relies on some fairly arty camera moves to make it more interesting, when they aren't needed anyway. Nicholson and Morse, meanwhile, are consummate pros who get into their characters completely (and for Nicholson especially it's almost a walk in the park, with his motivation less about the death of his daughter than it is about decay itself). But what is the audience to make of the mediocre decision to have Freddy get pulled over by the cops on his way to kill John, for drunk driving, and then go into a very far-fetched chase from them to catch up to John just so the irony can be placed in? It's not that the actors don't use some devices either at their disposal.
However in the case of the Crossing Guard, no matter how deeply felt Penn is to his material- leading up to a somewhat meaningful ending at the cemetery- he doesn't give it all to actors who demand more from him. I also think having seen this after seeing the Pledge, a brilliant drama with many of the same themes of redemption from another's death and loss from it all, rises so much more above similar ground in this picture. Not bad, but not great either- sort of an unfulfilled, if always watchable, middle-ground. B-
But through this premise, and the divide between self-destructive, drunk Freddy and the guilt-ridden, morose John Booth, Penn paints his characters sometimes into corners even when things become most intriguing. It's appropriate, I suppose, that Penn decided to dedicate the film to Charles Bukowski, as it probably alludes a lot to the moods of the characters in those books. But in putting across moods so much he almost forgets that his actors need believable circumstances to follow. One device, for example, is the whole "you got three days" angle Freddy pulls with John when he first confronts him in his trailer. There's also the sort of romance-in-limbo between John and another woman (Robin Wright Penn).
But what I didn't expect was that the actors almost don't, but ultimately do, rise above the contrivances of the script. There's even a great scene between Nicholson and Huston in a restaurant the night the murder is supposed to take place. Scenes like this, and a tear-ridden phone call from Freddy in a red-tinted room, are powerful and connect with the overall theme of loss in the film. Yet as a director Penn doesn't pull enough with his characters and mood to make it as compelling as it can be. He also relies on some fairly arty camera moves to make it more interesting, when they aren't needed anyway. Nicholson and Morse, meanwhile, are consummate pros who get into their characters completely (and for Nicholson especially it's almost a walk in the park, with his motivation less about the death of his daughter than it is about decay itself). But what is the audience to make of the mediocre decision to have Freddy get pulled over by the cops on his way to kill John, for drunk driving, and then go into a very far-fetched chase from them to catch up to John just so the irony can be placed in? It's not that the actors don't use some devices either at their disposal.
However in the case of the Crossing Guard, no matter how deeply felt Penn is to his material- leading up to a somewhat meaningful ending at the cemetery- he doesn't give it all to actors who demand more from him. I also think having seen this after seeing the Pledge, a brilliant drama with many of the same themes of redemption from another's death and loss from it all, rises so much more above similar ground in this picture. Not bad, but not great either- sort of an unfulfilled, if always watchable, middle-ground. B-