The Gateway

 

"I got some acid, I got crystal, dynamite green, some brown and china."

"Blow."

"I know you don't like them mushrooms."

"Blow."

"Really?"

"Mmm hmm"

"Ok. That's cooked with tabs of acid, you're gonna like that."

When the social worker entrusted to caring for your kids is playing chess for drugs in his local dive bar you might want to keep an eye on him. Because you never know, he might just be the one to save the day.

Parker Jode (Shea Whigham) spends half his day checking up on at risk children and the other half in a cloud of smoke, whiskey and powder. Life hasn't been kind to him but he's a good enough man still to make sure the kids in his care are looked after properly. Ashley Montrose (Taegan Burns) is one he checks on regularly and he's worried because her mother Dahlia (Olivia Munn) is coming apart at the seams and when her jailbird father Mike (Zach Avery) comes home things have the potential to go south fast. Mike promises he's on the straight and narrow but falls instantly into a life of crime with his old boss Duke Harmady (Frank Grillo) and within days of coming home robs a shipment of heroin from a gang involved with a Mexican cartel. All parties are on a collision course but can Parker keep Ashley out of danger?

It's Shea Whigham. He'll try his level best anyway. Whigham is one of those actors who can add a world weary veneer to any character he plays and it's his performance as Parker that turns a story we've seen a thousand times before into something quite watchable. He's broken by his past, by a veteran father, who to misquote the great John Prine had a hole in his arm where all his money went. He knows what the US foster system can do to children and it's his perogative to keep kids and parents together until it isn't feasible anymore. His few successes and many failures are beaten into his appearance and his demons are tamped down with things that are killing him. So when he sees a chance at redemption, a chance to really make a difference he goes at it with both hands and Whigham sells the part right down the line.

The rest of the story isn't quite so successful. Frank Grillo, in a smaller role than usual, looks like he's stepped in off the set of the 60's Batman, feeling less like a person and more like a plot point to keep the story moving while Olivia Munn is absolutely wasted in a role that's little more than a damsel in distress. Familiar faces like Bruce Dern, Keith David and Mark Boone Jr (still rocking that Sons Of Anarchy look btw, keep the faith Bobby) fill out the rest of the cast but don't get much to do aside from a rant from Dern, playing Parker's father, that just feels too awkwardly placed, too blunt and all encompassing, feeling like a scattergun aimed at all of society's ills. You'll get director Michele Civetta's intentions, that America's problems with substance abuse has it's roots in past sins but here it's a badly timed diatribe sticking out of the film like a sore thumb.

When a lead performance is this believable it's a nuisance when all else doesn't match it. The heist that kicks everything into motion will grab your attention though. A limb severing, bullet spraying brute force moment all done in one take (ok, there's two cuts but they are well hidden) that marks director Civetta as a name to take note of when it comes to directing action. Maybe this film will be his Gateway to the big time. 

Sorry.

The Gateway is streaming on Google Movies now.