Set amidst the dirt and debauchery of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Crossing follows the son of a mob-boss as he discovers his own sexual kinks, and just maybe the love of his life, as he attempts to take the family business legit.
The charming Sebastian Spence stars as Daniel Cimmerman, a brooding heir to his father's Croatian-Canadian crime syndicate, struggling to honor his father's dying wish of legitimacy while finding that his wedding to the daughter of another local crime-boss approaches faster than he would like. Meanwhile, Davina (played by Krystal Buble, sister of crooner Michael), a prostitute with a penchant for photography, finds herself roped into the extortion schemes of her boarder-line psychotic pimp Uncle Bunny, after being promised her freedom once the job is finished.
The target: Daniel himself. The plan: Davina is to lure him into a hotel-room and use her photography skills to take compromising pictures that can be used against him.
After Daniel's bachelor party (for which Davina is conveniently hired as the entertainment) Daniel and Davina share an emotionally charged night together, during which Daniel confesses a new found interest in cross dressing (thanks, in part, to an earlier encounter with another crossing dressing street thug, played by Canadian music icon Bif Naked). This newly discovered kink of Daniel's gives the opportunistic Uncle Bunny all the ammunition he needs to move forward with his extortion plans. That is, of course, until Davina begins to fall for her fall guy.
The film itself is evenly paced and well balanced enough to keep all of its balls in the air, while the audience stays firmly in toe. Screenwriters Roger Larry and Sandra Tomc approach their leads with such grace and humanity that they can easily been forgiven for their morally dubious lives, and become very sympathetic protagonists.
Some of the supporting casts, alternatively, don't seem to get the same emotional attention that the leads do. The characters of Daniel's cold-as-ice fiancé and Davina's barely there lawyer boyfriend seem to be more convenient plot-devices rather than fully realized characters. While their addition to the story does seem to give it a larger scope, their scenes (especially those of the boyfriend) almost seem to come from another film.
The whole affair comes to a head in a climactic shoot-out between Daniel and Uncle Bunny and his henchmen (or, henchwomen, in some cases). While the gun battle may lack the intensity that the rest of the film leaves you expecting, the ride to the end is ultimately an enjoyable one. Rarely in Canadian cinema do we find filmmakers daring enough to attempt a proper noir piece, but with Larry/Tomc and Crossing, we've found just that. A darkly humorous and sexually charged Canadian noir about an unlikely Romeo and Juliet, although we're never really sure which one is which.
The charming Sebastian Spence stars as Daniel Cimmerman, a brooding heir to his father's Croatian-Canadian crime syndicate, struggling to honor his father's dying wish of legitimacy while finding that his wedding to the daughter of another local crime-boss approaches faster than he would like. Meanwhile, Davina (played by Krystal Buble, sister of crooner Michael), a prostitute with a penchant for photography, finds herself roped into the extortion schemes of her boarder-line psychotic pimp Uncle Bunny, after being promised her freedom once the job is finished.
The target: Daniel himself. The plan: Davina is to lure him into a hotel-room and use her photography skills to take compromising pictures that can be used against him.
After Daniel's bachelor party (for which Davina is conveniently hired as the entertainment) Daniel and Davina share an emotionally charged night together, during which Daniel confesses a new found interest in cross dressing (thanks, in part, to an earlier encounter with another crossing dressing street thug, played by Canadian music icon Bif Naked). This newly discovered kink of Daniel's gives the opportunistic Uncle Bunny all the ammunition he needs to move forward with his extortion plans. That is, of course, until Davina begins to fall for her fall guy.
The film itself is evenly paced and well balanced enough to keep all of its balls in the air, while the audience stays firmly in toe. Screenwriters Roger Larry and Sandra Tomc approach their leads with such grace and humanity that they can easily been forgiven for their morally dubious lives, and become very sympathetic protagonists.
Some of the supporting casts, alternatively, don't seem to get the same emotional attention that the leads do. The characters of Daniel's cold-as-ice fiancé and Davina's barely there lawyer boyfriend seem to be more convenient plot-devices rather than fully realized characters. While their addition to the story does seem to give it a larger scope, their scenes (especially those of the boyfriend) almost seem to come from another film.
The whole affair comes to a head in a climactic shoot-out between Daniel and Uncle Bunny and his henchmen (or, henchwomen, in some cases). While the gun battle may lack the intensity that the rest of the film leaves you expecting, the ride to the end is ultimately an enjoyable one. Rarely in Canadian cinema do we find filmmakers daring enough to attempt a proper noir piece, but with Larry/Tomc and Crossing, we've found just that. A darkly humorous and sexually charged Canadian noir about an unlikely Romeo and Juliet, although we're never really sure which one is which.