Boundaries

Eighty-eight-year-old Christopher Plummer oozes charm as a manipulative con man with a twinkle in his eye in filmmaker Shana Feste’s estranged father/daughter road trip movie, which treads a well-worn path toward redemption. It begins with neurotic Laura Jaconi (Vera Farmiga) assuring her psychotherapist that she’s created definite boundaries and will not answer calls from her father, Jack (Plummer), who has always been unreliable and a disappointment. As a single mother, she is also dealing with her troubled son, Henry (Lewis MacDougall), who has been expelled from public school for drawing explicit caricatures of naked people, including his teacher and principal. Plus, her wealthy, demanding employer/friend Sofia (Dolly Wells) is planning an elaborate birthday party for her teenage daughter. And last-but-not-least, Laura is incapable of bypassing a stray dog or cat, so her home overflows with rescue animals. Predictably, it’s only a short time before Laura agrees to drive Jack—who has been evicted from his retirement home for growing cannabis—from Seattle to Los Angeles in his vintage Rolls-Royce so he can stay with her sister (Kristen Schaal). Jack has promised to give Laura enough tuition money for Henry to attend private school. Of course, their supposedly direct route down the Pacific Coast encounters detours as incorrigible Jack makes stops along the way, ostensibly visiting buddies (Christopher Lloyd, Peter Fonda) and Henry’s deadbeat dad (Bobby Cannavale), while also selling bags of home-grown marijuana he’s stowed in the trunk (hidden in adult diapers). Unfortunately, Boundaries manages to be both implausible and predictable. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include a “Setting Boundaries” behind-the-scenes featurette (12 min.). Bottom line: a small extras package for a disappointing film.] (S. Granger)