The Gateway

Shea Wigham does a very good job as the weary social worker who really cares about the hard luck cases he counsels, mostly women with children who have a difficult time staying stable. He's a former boxer who lost his way in life, a father who abandoned him and his mother when he was younger and tried to channel his energy as a boxer robbed of a good chance at success into helping others.

Olivia Munn is the damsel in distress who can't help herself, especially when her husband (or ex) is released from jail and comes home... but still wants to pull of jobs with his old boss, Frank Grillo (who is rarely in the film.)

The problem with this film is that it doesn't really go anywhere much of the time. It's meant to be a long character study but even that isn't so revealing. He has a conflict with his old man and it's nothing we haven't seen a million times. Dad, I resent you, won't ever ask anything from you, etc. Etc.

Olivia Munn plays the most inept mother on the planet. Wigham tries to help her and keep her job, child, stability but she resents him. Olivia's ex comes back and danger and jealousy and suspicion is about.

This should have been a much, much better film. The acting is actually quite good - from all but Munn who just doesn't sell the role, perhaps it is the script which makes her into an inconsiderate blubberer all the time. It fails for the most part as a character study as there is only a limited look into what drives this man to be a social worker and a twist that happens is incredibly lame and feels like a forced plot device. And in the end, the movie goes where many predictable films go where the writer wants you to go "Oh.... wow man... that's deep. That's heavy and an emotional hit" and it really isn't. The very ending is also intended to be clever and i could see where it was going but, it too, was a little too unnatural in the attempt to be cute and clever.

This is not a terrible movie and Wigham is very good in his character. Like others say, unfortunately, it just doesn't really go anywhere and is just a simple story of the reformed loser who tries his hardest to go the extra mile to help out this one irritating woman and her son so they can stay together and protected from her dangerous ex. That's it.

B movie, mediocre even by network tv standards, with an A list group of actors, maybe drawn to this project by its truly noble attempt to protect children from the idiotic behavior of the adults around them.

But, ends up Jjust a predictable, excruciatingly slow paced film.....We see all the punches coming way too far in advance; like a spiraling, slow motion plane crash....

When a social worker gets a little too wrapped up in his client and her dirtbag ex-con hubby comes home, things explode. It's got that made-for-tv feel.

Another one of these low budget, small scale thrillers that fails to do much with a half-hearted premise. This one has a lot of characters but is in the main based around a father being released from jail and bringing crime into the life of his wife and daughter. As usual for this genre, they amass some top actors in support including Keith David and Bruce Dern, and Shea Whigham is reliably great. But it's very hard to get too excited about something so run of the mill.

What the Getaway has going for it is that it was a drama with these little bits of action in it. That was perfect for people like me who may not have been up for the drama and the action was on point.

I saw Frank Grillo is in it and that was a bonus. Grillo seems to be becoming that type of star power that can show up in three or four scenes in a movie and legitimately sell the movie by putting him on the poster.

Olivia Munn is in it too. Looks like she's trying something different to widen her acting skills. She's in luck getting to share the screen with a season actor like Bruce Dern.

But the most interesting and fascinating cast member was Shea Whigham. This is a man who spent most of his career as a supporting actor now stepping up to the plate as lead actor, and doing a bang up job with it.

The drama is grimm but well played, and the action was fast and effective. I thought this movie was perfect.