[yasr_overall_rating]
Laura and her son Henry are forced to drive her estranged, pot-dealing, carefree father Jack across the country after being kicked out of a nursing home.
“Boundaries” breaks all familial rules to showcase a family with lots of problems. Sounds like the typical family until you throw in a trunk full of pot, a grandpa teaching his grandson to be a dealer, and two daughters still recovering from their childhood. Meet Jack (Christopher Plummer), a selfish man, past his prime and, like most narcissists, Jack’s carefree attitude left his children and grandchildren in the wake of his personal ambitions to be a pot dealer and avoid retirement. Director and writer Shana Feste must have grown up in a home with a narc of her very own as her ability to capture the mindset mirrored “Mommy Dearest.” Vera Farmiga (“Bates Motel”) plays the broken daughter and single mother to Henry (Lewis MacDougall) and all around mess who hides stray puppies in her purse.
Jack Jaconi (Plummer) is kicked out of his nursing home for his rather extensive shed garden of about 200 grand of pot. He needs his daughter Laura (Farmiga) to collect him and find him a new place to live. Scarred by her father’s selfish tendencies, not to mention his terrible influence on her young son Henry, Laura drives daddy to her sister Jojo’s (Kristen Schaal) house across the country to be rid of daddy dearest once and for all. Along with three of her many, many stray dogs, Laura, Henry, and Jack set across the country in an old Rolls Royce with a trunk full of pot. Unbeknownst to Laura, Henry helps his granddad to sell pot to pre-planned customers in various states, including to Henry’s wayward father. What kind of a grandfather forces his daughter and grandson to stay with the man who abandoned them so he can sell weed?
Laura never recovers from her desperate need for daddy’s approval and affection, hence her penchant to pick up every stray. On top of her other problems as a struggling single mom, her son is the oddball determined to draw nude pictures of everyone he meets and gift them to the person he draws. His tendency towards violence and elicit drawings causes the school to expel Henry and sends his mom searching for a special school for him. Jack promises to provide the money to help Henry afford tuition in exchange for the road trip across the country. Laura is under the delusion daddy wants to spend time with her and Henry until her ex-husband breaks that dream.
All three of their troubles unfold without a whole lot resolution except to realize they need each other to survive their crazy personalities and lives. Laura makes perfect sense as a damaged daughter finding love in all the wrong places to replace a dead mom and distant father. Jack cares only about himself. That’s it, like all narcissists who are the main event and everyone else in their lives are just stagehands, which is how he views his children and grandson. His daughter Jojo is a thirty-five-year-old, hippy-dippy, fruitcake with no ambition, searching for love inside herself. He doesn’t even pretend to care for her or her lifestyle, but unlike Laura, Jojo stops caring about daddy’s opinion.
Henry is the child no one wants. He draws people’s souls along with their genitalia. Not a friend-winning trait. He, too, desperately wants attention. His mom could never fully give it because she was not led by example. She spends more time loving animals she finds on the side of the road. Laura does try to love Henry to the best of her ability but fails, like most broken people do.
The story is not remarkable, nor is it enjoyable. It’s scene after scene of cringe-worthy family dynamics. The best part of the entire film is appreciating your own life because it’s better than the one on screen. Jack is the worst possible father, blaming his own faults on his daughter instead of fixing their relationship. He calls his grandson little shit, like it was an affectionate nickname instead of a jerk move meant to make Henry feel like less than human or acceptable. This family was an example of what not to be.
The worst part was the end where Jack acts human, and I do mean acts, implying he is capable of authentic feeling towards his child who so desperately wants his love. What is actually happening is the writer/director is living life out on screen with a fantasy ending. The derived plot will underwhelm those who avoided a life under the thumb of a cold-hearted guardian while those who lived that life will find the pain fresh all over again. Why the plot had to be filled with pot is beyond me except that the selfish live only for guilty pleasures and not for the work that comes with real pleasure, like love and acceptance. I appreciate the movie’s attempt to show this dark world to the world but not the lackluster plot.
In select theaters Friday, July 6th
