‘BOUNDARIES’

R 1:50

“Boundaries” puts you in the middle of a dysfunctional family and immerses you in the life of a woman grappling with abandonment issues.

Laura’s (Vera Farmiga) rocky relationship with her father, Jack (Christopher Plummer), is highlighted from the very beginning as the film opens up with Laura talking to a therapist. It is clear that Jack has caused some serious mental and emotional damage to Laura, hence the kitten in her purse at her therapy session.

Throughout the movie we see Laura’s abandonment issues surface in her love for animals, as her house is literally filled with stray cats and dogs — which need her and can’t ever leave her. Laura’s issues also manifest in her taste in men, as we are introduced to her first awful beau, who her son, Henry (Lewis MacDougall), clearly has a distaste for.

We also learn at this point that Henry likes to draw nude photos of random people he knows, a very odd hobby that persists throughout the film. Henry later becomes a center point for the plot when he gets expelled from school for, you guessed it, drawing a nude picture of a school faculty member.

Henry is troubled and disliked at school because of his oddities, like “talking to squirrels”, and Laura doesn’t know what to do. That’s when Laura gets her maybe fourth or fifth phone call from a number she has listed as “Don’t Pick Up.” We are then introduced to Jack, who is getting kicked out of his nursing home and needs a place to stay.

Jack makes a deal Laura can’t refuse, telling her he will get her the money to place Henry in private school, if she’ll just drive him across country to live with her sister, JoJo (Kristen Schaal). Little does Laura know, this means $200,000 of marijuana in her trunk and several pit stops visiting Jack’s “friends.”

When Henry finds out what is going on, Jack pays him off to keep the situation a secret and the two end up bonding over drug dealing. The road trip is one long manic episode of Laura and Jack fighting and attempting to sort out their issues.

Toward the end of the film, Henry gets fed up with all of this drama and says “seriously guys figure it out already,” and at this point I’m thinking “same kid, same.” Though the acting in the film is wonderful, the plot gets a little monotonous and you get a little bored along the way, waiting for some resolution or just something other than this constant back and forth between Laura and Jack.

The film is often odd and unsettling in places, but as a reflection of a real-life dysfunctional family, the actors make it believable. The last few minutes of the film finally give us a little resolution.

As the credits started rolling by, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disturbed and unsettled by everything I had just watched, but perhaps that was the point.

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Christopher Plummer, Lewis MacDougall, Christopher Lloyd, Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Kristen Schaal, Bobby Cannavale, and Dolly Wells. — Sierra Rains-Moad, The Oklahoman