Boundaries (2018)

[Jake Lipson]

Title: Boundaries

Tagline: With every road trip comes baggage

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Director: Shana Feste

Cast: Vera Farmiga, Christopher Plummer, Lewis MacDougall, Bobby Cannavale, Kristen Schaal, Dolly Wells, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Fonda, Ryan Robbins, Diana Bang, Glenn Beck, Elizabeth Bowen, Lisa Bunting, Rohan Campbell, Sharon Crandall, Genevieve Desjardins, B.J. Harrison, Emily Holmes, Billy Hopeless, Chelah Horsdal, James Kirk, Jessica McLeod, Kiefer O'Reilly, Kalvin Olafson, Robin T. Rose, Jill Teed, Sean Tyson

Release: 2018-06-22

Runtime: 105

Plot: Single mom Laura, along with her awkward 14 year-old son Henry is forced to drive Jack, her estranged, care-free pot dealing father across country after he's kicked out of yet another nursing home.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I saw Boundaries this afternoon.

The cast was totally exceptional. The movie itself was decidedly not, and felt like it had the foundations of a particularly average sitcom.

Christopher Plummer and Vera Farminga are really terrific together as an estranged father and daughter on a cross-country road trip. But what the script gives them to doesn't really reach the level of their best work. Plummer hasn't told her he's stashed loads of pot in the trunk and is using her as a drug mule, as he delivers it to his various customers over the course of the trip.

Fans of A Monster Calls will be startled to see how much older Lewis MacDougall (here playing Farmiga's son) looks now, even only a couple years after that film. He was again very good here, but had better material to work with in that movie. It was also especially nice to see Christopher Loyd pop up, since I haven't seen him in a while.

I'm glad I saw it since I like all of these actors so much. But it's not a great movie, merely a decent one. I still enjoyed it more often than I didn't, but I don't really feel any urge to see it again or own it.

If you like the actors and have already seen the many better films playing right now in the arthouse space, his might be worth seeing. If not, I'd recommend something else instead.

 

[usrunnr]

I saw Boundaries this afternoon.

The cast was totally exceptional. The movie itself was decidedly not, and felt like it had the foundations of a particularly average sitcom.

Christopher Plummer and Vera Farminga are really terrific together as an estranged father and daughter on a cross-country road trip. But what the script gives them to doesn't really reach the level of their best work. Plummer hasn't told her he's stashed loads of pot in the trunk and is using her as a drug mule, as he delivers it to his various customers over the course of the trip.

Fans of A Monster Calls will be startled to see how much older Lewis MacDougall (here playing Farmiga's son) looks now, even only a couple years after that film. He was again very good here, but had better material to work with in that movie. It was also especially nice to see Christopher Loyd pop up, since I haven't seen him in a while.

I'm glad I saw it since I like all of these actors so much. But it's not a great movie, merely a decent one. I still enjoyed it more often than I didn't, but I don't really feel any urge to see it again or own it.

If you like the actors and have already seen the many better films playing right now in the arthouse space, his might be worth seeing. If not, I'd recommend something else instead.

Might have benefitted from better editing. Cut the psychiatrist scene at the beginning, and shorten other scenes. Moments of humor and pathos though. Excellently acted.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Might have benefitted from better editing.

What motivated you to dig up this thread? That's not a complaint, but a genuine question. Did you just see the movie? I haven't thought about this film since I saw it so I'm not really equipped to discuss it at any length almost a year later.