Lovable Oddballs: Our Review Of ‘Boundaries’

Posted in Movies, Theatrical by - July 06, 2018
Lovable Oddballs: Our Review Of ‘Boundaries’

The instant Boundaries opened on Vera Farmiga’s expressive face I knew I was in good hands. Even if writer/director Shana Feste’s film went off the rails in the first act, I could count on a world-class performance from Farmiga to keep me hooked. Fortunately, Boundaries doesn’t go off the rails – although it does come close. Feste combines a talented cast with a cliché script to deliver an enjoyable dramedy with enough charm to overcome its stale road trip movie tropes.

We meet Laura Jaconi (Vera Farmiga) during a therapy session where she and her therapist discuss boundary issues. Laura insists she’s making progress but after 30 seconds of knowing her, you can tell it isn’t true. Laura is a beautiful mess. She speaks with the hollow bluster of someone holding it together by a thread. She’s a single mom with an awkward teenage son, Henry (Lewis MacDougall), who doesn’t fit in at school – or anywhere else. She spends her days running errands for a mega-rich snob and her nights dating a series of clowns. And on top of that, she hasn’t met a stray cat or dog that she won’t bring home. There’s one area where she’s keeping it together: avoiding contact with her disaster of a father, Jack (Christopher Plummer).

Things get complicated when Henry gets expelled from school. Laura can’t afford to send him to private school, so she must go to her father for help. At the same time, Jack’s senior’s home throws him out for his shady behaviour and he needs a place to live. Jack offers to pay Henry’s tuition if Laura drives him down the west coast to live with her sister JoJo (Kristen Schaal). Together, these three oddballs set off down the coastline for a trip filled with friction, hijinks, and maybe even some bonding.

Boundaries features such a marvellous cast that it’s too bad no one outside of the three leads gets much to do. Peter Fonda and Christopher Lloyd’s performances are a shade above cameos. They show up to add some levity but don’t add much to the plot of the film. Bobby Cannavale and Schaal’s characters have more impact on the story but get less than 10-minutes of screen time. Schaal lights up the screen with her cherubic energy and Cannavale is magnetic as a charming scumbag. To be fair, these are nit picks. All four of these characters put a smile on my face and I’m glad to see them pop up in any film for any amount of time.

It’s Plummer, though, that is the straw that stirs this drink. Jack is the element of chaos that throws everyone’s lives off their axis. He’s a liar, a crook, and schemer so it doesn’t take him long to drag people into trouble. At almost 90-years-old, Plummer remains a commanding screen presence – check out his work in All the Money in the World. But in Boundaries, Plummer plays Jack as feeble and comes off as every one of his 88-years. Jack looks like an old man because seeming brittle is an advantage. He’s a world-class charmer one minute and an oily conman the next. He knows what buttons to push in people to get what he wants. It’s a fantastic transformation from one of the all-time greats. If you enjoy watching people play bastards, Jack will put a grin on your face.

The other standout is MacDougall’s offbeat performance as Henry. Between Henry, Jonah in Tully, and Charlie in Hereditary, I’m seeing a wave of inexplicably odd kids in movies this summer. Henry has his charms and he is the only one I would consider spending time with. He doesn’t seem to have boundaries like most people do and comes across as though he has an anarchist’s spirit. What’s most impressive is that the film doesn’t angle him as your typical whiny teen, emo kid, or problem child. Feste makes us understand that he’s a square peg at a school made of round holes. He’s a kid who longs to connect with someone who can offer the guidance and support he needs.

Boundaries’ camera work is solid but uninspired. It’s a road trip movie about a family driving down the west coast but the film doesn’t take advantage of the gorgeous scenery along the way. It’s not until the Jaconis approach Los Angeles where the camera hangs back and soaks up the stunning landscapes. And even then, the camera never wants to linger for more than a split second. Everything feels so precise and functional. The only time the film spices up the cinematography is when the drama heightens. When the story intensifies, Feste opts to shoot the scene using a handheld camera. The camera shakes around in a frantic, unstable style meant to make us feel like we’re unravelling along with the stressed-out characters.

At a glance, Boundaries looks like the type of cringe-inducing dramedy we’ve seen countless times: A toxic person inserts themselves into a family, that person starts changing for the better, and then they screw it all up and look for a way back in. But I do see something different in Boundaries and I enjoyed watching this disastrous family get in each other’s way as they struggled to find their place in the world. Feste’s film offers more comedic fluff than dramatic grit, but she paints an honest portrait of messy family dynamics. Just like real life families, the Jaconi’s relationships with one another are complicated, problematic, and aggravating. But even when they hit rock bottom, they’re still lovable to one another. That’s one slice of life I can relate to.

  • Release Date: 6/22/2018
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Victor Stiff is a Toronto-based freelance writer and pop culture curator. Victor currently contributes insights, criticisms, and reviews to several online publications where he has extended coverage to the Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs, Toronto After Dark, Toronto ComiCon, and Fan Expo Canada. Victor has a soft spot in his heart for Tim Burton movies and his two poorly behaved beagles (but not in that order).
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