The Crossing Guard (1995)

The Crossing Guard is a film that tries to make a victim out of the viewer as much as the protagonist, Freddie (Jack Nicholson), but is only so successful.  You have to care about the characters and the screenplay by writer/director Sean Penn doesn't give you very much to care about.

Freddie is a jeweler, with a store and a divorce and a lot of pent up self pity that he tries to drown every night in alcohol and the arms of a low rent hooker picked up at his local strip bar.  The pity comes from a lot of sources - he is a low down amoral shi+heel; a womanizer; a drunkard; a wastrel; but the aspect he tries to blame his inadequacies on is a convenient phantom - his daughter was killed in an accident by a drunk driver (David Morse) who served time for it.  Freddie has been marking the days off on his calendar, waiting until the guy is released from prison.  For revenge - he tries to tell himself, but it's really to blot out his own inadequacy, his drunkenness, his failed marriage, and so on. He is really running towards his own destruction you realize as the movie plays out.

Freddie seems to want to impress his former wife (Anjelica Huston) who has moved on, remarried and has a life.  He visits her a couple times trying to evoke some reaction with the typical Jack Nicholson ranting shtick.  This is OK as far as it goes but it is used a little too often and the too same old -same old Nicholson shtick we've seen too many times before. This struggle to give his life meaning is the crux of the film and the fact that Freddie is pi$ sing it all away is a good short term observation but hardly enough to fill up 114 minutes of screen time. 

Freddie goes and breaks into the ex con's (David Morse) trailer parked in his parents' driveway. Guess it's a California thing. Freddie pulls out his .45 and snaps it but forgot to load it with ammunition. Uh huh.  This gives a convenient waiting period as Nicholson warns him You have three days, etc.

Probably the best parts I liked were the strip club sequences where one stripper among other acts was impersonating a little girl like Shirley Temple singing "The Good Ship Lollypop" while shucking her clothes. Jack of course got to boff her afterwards in one of his many paid encounters depicted in the story. Robin Wright played the love interest for John Booth, the ex con and another guy that women will never understand.  The ending is implausible but does manage to jerk a tear or two as Nicholson unexpectedly reveals a little appropriate emotion.   The movie goes on far too long after economically establishing the conflict in the first few minutes.  So give it five stars for the beginning and one star for the remainder.  In my rankings I call The Crossing Guard a three star film.

The Buenavista DVD is presented in color and runs 114 minutes at 1.85:1 format.  There is a full length commentary from Sean Penn and several others included as an extra feature.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day