If there's an actor out there in desperate need of a career
rebirth...well, a second career rebirth... it's John Travolta. He could
probably do for a Liam Neeson-style turn towards action, but he already tried
that (with Taken's Luc Besson no less) in From Paris with
Love and other crappy
genre flicks. The problem isn't that his movies largely go unseen, although
that is a big issue, it's that the films themselves have uniformly been
terrible and his roles embarrassing. Travolta's latest film, crime drama The Forger, is probably the
best he's done in some time but still ranks as mediocre at best.
Looking vaguely like a made-for-TV movie,
probably because that's what director Philip Martin is known for, The Forger presents big dramatic issues solved in
the most simplistic manner possible. Travolta plays Ray Cutter, a prison inmate
known serving time for a career as a renowned art forger. With only weeks left
in his sentence, Ray makes the rash decision to call up a powerful associate
who pulls some strings to get him released early. It comes with a price that
Ray must steal a classic piece of Claude Monet art for his private collection.
Ray has no choice but agree, even though he's reluctant to get back into the
game.
It isn't long before we find out why Ray
needed to get out of jail when he did. His son William (Tye Sheridan) has a
brain tumor and only has months left to live. He's been staying with Ray's
equally tough-as-nails father (Christopher Plummer), who isn't so much for that
whole parenting thing. William doesn't care much for his jailbird daddy, but it
isn't long before they're best buds. It also isn't long before William requests
to be part of dad's heist because positive father/son time includes committing
major felonies.
That's how simplistic
screenwriter Richard D’Ovidio's screenplay works things out, though. The
easiest way to show how the guys are bonding is to have them pull a crime
together. Naturally. And since William is dying there's no way Ray could say
no. Well, he actually does at first but it doesn't take much arm-twisting to
change his mind. Any past grievances between the Cutter clan don't amount to
much but a few moments of yelling, arguing, followed by weak acquiescence. Even
when William's drug-addicted mother (Jennifer Ehle) enters the picture there's
no real tension there. This film wasn't built to withstand anything too
serious. There's a whole subplot about a cop (Abigail Spencer) on William's
trail and nothing really comes of it because that would be too complicated.
Martin's direction doesn't have much of a
personality, but he at least gets a couple of solid performances out of
Sheridan and Plummer, the latter having enough energy to match the entire cast.
Travolta seems ill-suited to such an understated role, and Ehle deserves better
than the screenplay gives her to work with. Without an ounce of emotional
investment in its characters, The
Forger proves to be a completely
counterfeit crime thriller.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
