Boundaries

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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What a versatile actor Christopher Plummer is. We know that from his varied movie roles in the past – from Leo Tolstoy in “The Last Station” to Captain Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” to Rudyard Kipling in “The Man Who Would Be King.”

At age 88, Plummer has won the Triple Crown for acting – an Academy Award for “Beginners,” two Emmys, and two Tonys.

And recently we’ve seen him play such diverse roles as crusty billionaire J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” and a pot-dealing octogenarian in “Boundaries.”

As it happens, “Boundaries” is playing at Tropic Cinema.

Here, dear ol’ dad (Plummer) convinces his daughter (Vera Farmiga) and grandson (Lewis MacDougall) to drive him from Portland to her sister’s house in Los Angeles after he’s kicked out of a retirement home. Of course, along the way he has to visit with some shady characters (Peter Fonda, among them) and sell a little pot along the way.

This road trip movie is an excellent comedy-drama, so don’t confuse it with “Bad Grandpa.”

“There’s a lot of reflection to it,” Plummer muses, admitting he’s entered a new phase of his career that’s “defined by introspection and the elusiveness of closure.”

In “Boundaries” Christopher Plummer again displays his versatility. Playing against type, he’s “relaxed and caddish instead of prim and proper.”

As for pot, Plummer doesn’t touch the stuff himself in real life. “I stuck to booze, thank you very much, didn’t have anything to do with the drug world. I tried marijuana once – put me to sleep.”

“The parts I’m receiving in films now are wonderful,” he says. “The last 10 have all been fascinating.”

That includes “Boundaries.”

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com