The Crossing Guard

Directed by Sean Penn, The Crossing Guard follows Jack Nicholson’s Freddy Gale as he concocts a plan to murder the recently-paroled man (David Morse’s John Booth) responsible for the drunk-driving death of his young daughter years earlier. Filmmaker Penn, armed with his own script, delivers a slow-paced yet mostly engrossing drama that benefits from the predictably stellar efforts of its actors, as both Nicholson and Morse turn in riveting work that’s matched by a roster of such top-flight periphery players as Robin Wright, Piper Laurie, and Anjelica Huston. (The latter is especially compelling as Freddy’s weary ex-wife, to be sure.) And although Penn has packed the proceedings with a number of spellbinding, electrifying sequences, including a gripping confrontation between Nicholson and Huston’s respective characters, The Crossing Guard‘s exceedingly deliberate sensibilities paves the way for a midsection that’s perhaps not quite as consistently enthralling as one might’ve expected (and hoped) – which, despite the undeniable powerful bent of the picture’s final stretch, cements the whole thing’s place as a stirring endeavor that could’ve used a few judicious trims here and there.

*** out of ****