Christopher Plummer plays Jack, the charming rogue and engine of the road-picture comedy Boundaries. Now in his 80s, he’s been a benign outlaw all his life, a pot grower and dealer who always managed to stay a step ahead of the law. The consequences of his life of crime, however, were visited on his oldest daughter, Laura (Vera Farmiga). She goes through life clutching victimhood like a damp Kleenex—all because he was never there for her.
The title of this chatty indie picture by director Shana Feste comes from Laura’s conversations with her therapist—you know, that stuff about setting boundaries. Laura would like to build a wall between herself and Jack, but the shrewd old man prevails on her good nature. He’s being kicked out of the senior center for the “low moral integrity” of his suspected dope dealing. At the same time, Laura’s passively antisocial teenage son, Henry (Lewis MacDougall), is being expelled from school. At loose ends, she agrees to drive Jack from Portland to her younger sister in Los Angeles, who agreed to take dad. Henry and part of her menagerie of stray animals come along for the ride in Jack’s flashy vintage Rolls Royce.
Of course, she has no idea that the various stops he insists on making along the way are for business as much as pleasure. He has thousands of dollars in primo pot stashed in the car trunk and disguised in adult diaper bags. Jack recruits his grandson as an accomplice, but insists that for Henry, it’s a temporary job. The lad loves to draw, and granddad encourages him to pursue his gifts.
The journey more or less follows the expected route with a few mildly heart-warming moments and a modest level of humor throughout. They spend the night at the home of Jack’s old friend-customer, an unrepentant child of the counterculture caring for his developmentally disabled adult son. “Family, that’s all there is,” the old friend insists. One of Jack’s other customers is Laura’s wastrel ex-husband, Leonard (Bobby Cannavale). To convince her to pay him a visit, Jack coaches Henry with a sob story about reconnecting with his lost dad. She buys it, with comical results.
The modest aspirations of Boundaries are kindled by the chemistry between Plummer and Farmiga, who plays the flustered daughter and caring if slightly inept mom with freshness and believability. The story of father-daughter reconciliation plays out amidst a sequence of skits concerning an illicit weed that, as Jack points out, may soon be legal. “What’s the fun in it then?” he asks, contemplating retirement.
