One thing is for certain: Screenwriters Alex Felix Bendaña, Michele Civetta (who also directed), and Andrew Levitas have devised a worthy protagonist in The Gateway. Parker, the man in question, has serious, deep-seeded demons in his past. Following a childhood of abuse in the foster system, he has dedicated his adulthood preventing other children from having to go through what he did. He is also a rough, impulsive man in every aspect of his life that does not pertain to his career, and in a few ways that definitely do. The world in which he operates is a cold and unforgiving one, and the opening scene, in which he discovers a woman’s corpse in a bedroom while her child thinks she’s been asleep for a while, communicates that clearly. So, by the way, does Shea Whigham’s defeated and exhausted portrayal of the man.
It’s unfortunate, then, that the screenwriters have no idea what to do with Parker when implementing his presence in this particular movie. The drama surrounds Ashley (Taegan Burns), a girl whose home life is, to say the least, an absolute train wreck. Her father Mike (Zach Avery) is released from prison, and almost immediately upon arriving home, he continues what must have been a history of toxic jealousy and emotional abuse toward his wife Dahlia (Olivia Munn). Dear old Dad has gotten back in the drug business, in hock to a kingpin named “The Duke” (Frank Grillo) whose demands are rock-solid and impossible to escape. We know what kind of violence theoretically awaits at the other end of failure.
Luckily for Dahlia and Ashley, Parker has become quite attached to this troubled family unit. He and Dahlia share some moments with a suggestion of romance, and even though the screenwriters never actually go there, one wonders why the suggestion is here at all. In any case, Parker’s professional life is as on the rocks as his personal one. He assaults a fellow worker (to be fair, the worker’s constant, nagging childishness would grate on anyone’s nerves) and holds a couple of burglars at gunpoint when they steal the radio from his car. These encounters get him fired from work, but of course, the job can’t quit him so easily.
He embroils himself in the lives of Dahlia and Ashley specifically, in order to do good with his life, now that he has nothing to lose. He has no home life himself of which to speak, especially reflective in his antagonistic relationship with his own birth father (Bruce Dern), whom he found years ago but who remains sternly unapologetic and stubborn about the decisions that put Parker in the system. This relationship is fascinating, not only because Dern is so good here in his grizzled, growling turn, but because there is nuance to explore within it. The same goes for Parker’s relationship with Dahlia, played with increasing emptiness by Munn.
All of that nuance is sacrificed in an extended climax that manufactures an entirely external conflict in order to give us some thrills: Mike places drugs in Ashley’s backpack, in order to pass them off in a meet. Meanwhile, Parker’s involvement in protecting mother and daughter puts Mike’s mission for the Duke in direct distress. In other words, after all the solid set-up and despite these solid performances (even from Grillo, who chews the scenery in an extended cameo), The Gateway disappointingly comes down to who is quickest with a gun.
Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
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