MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Crossing Guard’ Allows Emotion to Be Its Guide

Sean Penn brings the same visceral intensity and raw emotionality to writing and directing as he does to acting, and while that may sound like a good thing, it finally isn’t. “The Crossing Guard,” Penn’s second film behind the camera, is a troubling, troublesome movie whose makeshift structure cannot contain the powerful flood of passions that he and his cast have poured into it.

When he works as an actor, Penn’s performance is tempered and adjusted (Penn would probably say diluted) by the input of the writer and director. But as a filmmaker, Penn has allowed no one to modulate his vision. As a result, this study of naked obsession, while showing evidence of considerable talent, has been allowed to go past its mark. Despite a determination to explore extremes of emotion, “The Crossing Guard” will leave most viewers cold.

As with “The Indian Runner,” his first film, Penn is most impressive with actors, here convincing Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston to give themselves over completely to his vision while creating a brooding, claustrophobic mood on screen. Working with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, Penn favors the kind of filmmaking that wants to claw for the essence of behavior, that attempts to drag audiences inside its characters’ pain.

And there is a lot of it to be dragged into, for “The Crossing Guard” is one of those movies in which nobody even thinks of having a nice day. Artful cross-cutting introduces us to three people who are dealing, six years after the fact, with the death of a small girl in a drunk driving accident.

Freddy Gale (Nicholson), the girl’s now-divorced father, has turned into an alcoholic wastrel who hangs out in strip clubs and neglects his small jewelry store. His ex-wife Mary (Huston) has sought solace in support groups and taken their two remaining children into a new marriage with the saner Roger (Robbie Robertson). And John Booth (David Morse), the man who drove the car, has spent all those years in prison.

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But now the day Freddy has obsessively marked on his calendar is here. John Booth is being released from prison and Freddy, whose existence is anchored to nothing but thoughts of revenge, announces to Mary his determination to fulfill his life’s purpose and kill his daughter’s murderer.

While this scenario lacks nothing as a premise, problems arise in how Penn has worked it out. Consistently troubling is a kind of arbitrariness that taints both the script and the casting. Freddy, for instance, does track John Booth down but inexplicably gives him a three-day reprieve, which makes things at once more dramatic but less plausible.

And the way Booth is envisioned, capped by the casting of Morse, is also off. Though Morse is a capable actor, Booth is too much the gentle, saintly giant, too fine and sensitive a presence, to seem other than a hollow construct. And, fascinated by the possibilities of contrasting Freddy’s boozing and wenching to Booth’s philosophical discussions with sensitive artist JoJo (Robin Wright) about the nature of guilt, Penn has not noticed how schematic it all is.

In terms of dialogue, Penn’s script is similarly lacking, his characters tending to say things that are either pompous or ponderous. Though Penn clearly sees himself as too much of a personal artist to consider it, he is one filmmaker who would truly be well served by collaborating with a writer.

Another problem, one common to performers moving behind the camera, is that “The Crossing Guard” is rich with extraneous, indulgent actor’s moments that would earn this film the Actors Studio Seal of Approval (if there were such a thing) but in practical terms add little while unnecessarily encumbering the action.

Given all that, it is a mark of Penn’s strengths as a director that he is able to get strong and emotional performances out of both Huston and Nicholson without much of a script to help them. Looking convincingly bleary-eyed and believably self-destructive, Nicholson is as impressive as he’s been in years as a man who has willfully turned his own life into hell on Earth.

But good as they are, these performances are lonely arias that never coalesce into an ensemble. Investing emotion in banal situations is not likely to pay off, and for all the ostentatious naked agony on display, no one in this film feels particularly human. While Sean Penn embarked on “The Crossing Guard” because its story means a great deal to him, the finished film has not been able to noticeably broaden that audience.

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* MPAA rating: R, for sexuality and strong language. Times guidelines: sporadic nudity and adult situations. ‘The Crossing Guard’

Jack Nicholson: Freddy Gale

David Morse: John Booth

Anjelica Huston: Mary

Robin Wright: JoJo

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Released by Miramax Films. Director Sean Penn. Producers Sean Penn, David S. Hamburger. Executive producers Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Richard Gladstein. Screenplay by Sean Penn. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. Editor Jay Cassidy. Costumes Jill Ohanneson. Music Jack Nitzche. Production design Michael Haller. Set decorator Derek R. Hill. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

* Exclusively at AMC Century 14, Century City Shopping Center, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., (310) 553-8900.