The Crossing Guard

An underrated 90s drama that sets up a perfect emotional conflict: a grieving father consumed by a need for revenge, and a guilt-ridden killer who doesn't know how to move forward. The core story and setup are great, but the screenplay is held back by noticeable plot holes and twists that aren't quite up to par. What saves the movie and makes it highly enjoyable is Jack Nicholson; he can play absolutely any role, and his performance here is brilliant. Sean Penn’s direction is solid, and the ending is incredibly great and emotionally moving. Overall, a good, underrated film that deserves more recognition, especially as a companion piece to The Pledge.

Honestly, I expected much more from this movie. It has good actors, it has a script with good dramatic premises and a promising story, in short, it could have been frankly better. It was a failure at the box office, it passed on the sidelines of the film careers of its main actors, and it turned out to be better that way, being forgotten until the present. The screenplay is almost entirely centered on the figure of a father devastated by the death of his daughter, who was accidentally run over by a drunk driver. A goldsmith by trade, he never overcame loss and grief never closed the wounds, leading to the end of his marriage and a life made of emotional, moral and psychological wreckage: occupying the time between his jewelry shop, strip clubs and occasional affairs. With prostitutes, he knows his life ended there. In this, the man who killed his daughter is released from prison, and he becomes obsessed with the idea of killing him. So far, so good... despite the main character being acid and unpleasant, we understand the reason: he is an angry person, under enormous inner suffering. But the assassin is not much different! He is a visible and sincerely repentant person who, even so, does nothing to arouse our sympathy. Thus, we have two characters that, despite being essential to the whole story, are not able to reach the audience and generate some empathy. In addition to the bad conception of the characters, the film has an anti-climatic ending, with a boring and boring foot chase. A succession of clichés, preconceived ideas and forced messages. I can't say that I liked the work of Jack Nicholson or David Morse. Both were given quite poor material and are never able to really show merit or value. Anjelica Huston appears little and is always in conflict. Technically, it's a banal film, without great reasons for interest. The cinematography fulfills its role, but the film is badly edited and has serious pacing problems, dragging tiringly until the end.