The Crossing Guard (1995) * * *

 

Directed by: Sean Penn

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, David Morse, Robin Wright, Piper Laurie, Richard Bradford, Robbie Robertson, Kari Wuhrer

The Crossing Guard contains moments of pure power and emotion which resonate with anyone who has lost a child.  The Crossing Guard is not merely a tale of a father seeking revenge on the drunk driver who killed his daughter, but it muddies the waters by making Freddy Gale (Nicholson) an alcoholic himself and by having John Booth (Morse), the drunk driver be sympathetic and trying to redeem himself.  Does it have lapses?  Yes, but none that are unforgivable, mostly because the underlying story is compelling enough.  

The Crossing Guard takes place roughly seven years after John killed Freddy's seven-year-old daughter Emily in a drunk driving accident.   John is released from prison, and Freddy informs his ex-wife (and Emily's mother) Mary (Huston) that he intends to kill John on the day of his release, which is met with horror from Mary.  As the onion layers are peeled back, we learn Freddy has never visited Emily's gravesite and his inability to heal and move on as best he can have been drowned in drink and nuzzling with strippers.  Is he going to kill John for revenge or to impress his ex-wife?  

John, meanwhile, takes up residence in a trailer behind his parents' home.  Freddy greets him with a gun and finds that John barely seems surprised.  When Freddy's gun jams, John asks for three days to tie up loose ends and to experience a bit of freedom before dying.  Freddy grants him the three days and marks the days on the calendar to when he can find John again and finish the job.  This tangent is not entirely convincing, and the movie veers off course as John meets a potential future girlfriend in Jojo (Wright), who realizes John's guilt may be too much for an obstacle to overcome.  But John, after some soul searching, decides that Jojo may be someone worth living for, while Freddy finds himself in the midst of drunken stupors and unhappiness. 

The final thirty minutes contain an angry heart-to-heart between Freddy and Mary which ends on a sour note and a long chase on foot in which John isn't running away from Freddy as much as leading him somewhere.  The payoff is worthy of the sometimes-uneven execution, with Nicholson's and Morse's performances providing the emotional resonance to propel the story forward, even if it seems at times, it seems stuck.  The final shots show us a moment in which John and Freddy can truly find the strength to heal together, although in such a scenario, you are never fully healed.