CRISSCROSS
A film review by Jer Fairall
Copyright 1996 Jer Fairall
CrissCross (1992) **1/2
"CrissCross" is an odd little film that played in theaters for about one day back in the spring in 1992, recieved mediocre reviews and quickly went to video. It's a small film, which means that it's about people, not explosions and it's set in that popular cinematic time period, the late 1960's. Goldie Hawn plays the single mother who lives in a hotel and works after hours as a stripper in order to support herself and her 12 year old son. Despite her top billing, however, the film is more focused on her son Chris, played by newcomer David Arnott, than it is on Hawn. The early part of the film mostly deals with Chris's father, a Vietnam vet who joins a monastary in order to block out the trauma he experienced in the war. There are a few scenes between Arnott and his father, played by Keith Carradine, that make you think that the rest of the film will be about the father coming to terms with the war and re-entering society (much like Kevin Costner's 1994 film, "The War"). But the father is soon forgotten about and most of the film takes place in the family's small Florida town in the summer of '69 and is about Chris's attempts to save his mother from the stripping business. Chris learns that the cook at the hotel where he lives is secretly dealing cocaine so Chris decides to steal the drugs and sell them himself in order to raise enough money for his mother to quit stripping. Meanwhile, Hawn has a new boyfriend (Arliss Howard) who Chris naturally feels resentful towards. "CrissCross" is an uneven film that at times relies too heavily on period atmosphere (for example - in case you forget that the movie is set in 1969, director Chris Menges includes many shots of the moon landing). But at least the film doesn't overdose on "hits from the era" the way that "Forest Gump" sometimes did. There are maybe four or five recognizable tunes in the film, but it's clear that selling a soundtrack one of the aims of this film. The cast is interesting. Hawn ins't given much to do here, but her young co-star, Arnott manages to carry the film quite well. While most young actors tend to broadly overact in lead roles, Arnott is nicely understated and quiet, although sometimes a little too understatedand and quiet, in the lead role. This movie was likely intended to launch him as a young actor who can handle drama (like Edward Furlong or Brad Renfro) but, perhaps due to the films failure, Arnott hasn't been seen in much since. (This David Arnott is not to be confused with the "Last Action Hero" screenwriter of the same name). Also included in the cast is Steve Buscemi of "Reservoir Dogs" fame in an early role as a druggie. Despite its awkwardness, "CrissCross" isn't nearly as bad as the you would think. Though it moves at a leisurely pace, eventually, through some unexpected twists in the plot and because of Arnott, the film began to grow on me after a while. There are several good scenes in the second half of the movie as Chris interacts with the drug dealers, his Mom's new boyfriend, the hotel manager and his girlfriend from next door (they have one of those adolescent love scenes where the parents come home and almost catch them in the act just as they are about to do something). Unfortunatly, the ending of the film is so contrived that it's nearly unforgivable. In the last fifteen minutes of the movie, many of it's key characters are brought together for a confrontation that is not at all believable and too neatly resolved. It's not hard to see why "CrissCross" didn't thrive in theaters or engage film critics. Yet risk taking video renters will come away from a film that is hardly perfect but often rewarding.
-Jer Fairall, 1996
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