Boundaries

What to do when your father is a completely irresponsible parent, an unapologetic pot dealer, and also needs a ride down the coast after being kicked out of his senior home? That’s the dilemma facing Laura (Vera Farmiga), a single mom with a compulsion for taking in stray animals. When she reluctantly agrees to play chauffeur for her wayward dad, the wheels are set in motion for a riotous and heartwarming comedy spearheaded by a magnetic Christopher Plummer as the senior stoner. Costars Peter Fonda and Bobby Cannavale.

“Plummer takes the character of Jack and divests him of any hint of the usual calculated comic overstatement. Every line feels spontaneous, served up with Plummer’s dryly amused finesse, in tones sonorous enough to rival Morgan Freeman’s… The writer-director, Shana Feste, who made the 2010 Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Country Strong, knows how to stage a road movie as soft-edged psychodrama, without getting bogged down in dumb plot developments. And she’s got just the right actress in Vera Farmiga, who plays Laura with a protective anger – a sense of propping up her own boundaries – that can’t mask how vulnerable she still is to her dad’s bad parenting.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety