It still makes for a perfect story though and if the inexperience of the son Biwan portrayed by Danny Quinn does not get to us too dearly , he stands a great chance of redeeming this couple, Set in Iran, the film depicts a physician Biwan alongside his young son Bobby, and his American girlfriend Susan (Isabelle Dahlin) whom he married in the hope to move to Los Angeles one day. Susan believes that the violence in Iran boils over when Bobby’s wellbeing is endangered as well. They plan to escape to Los Angeles with their son. Meanwhile, Bobby is about to meet a little boy called Tobey (Kahlil Nelson) whose older brother rules over the Los Angeles heroin drug trade. Once upon a time, she was married to a journalist, and in the search of finding in herself the satisfaction she craved for, she resorts to photographing life of drug gangs. However, the work she previously wanted can only be described as self-destructive.
There might be, in all of this, a kernel of a good idea. The author seems to want to work on the myth that America is somehow exempt from the kind of violence which American politicians and entertainers condemn around the world. There is a hint that the bombing of Iran and Iraq, and the violence in the streets of Los Angeles are all of the same senseless cloth tribal in nature. Sure, it’s a bit of a naïve thesis, but at least it stands a chance of being something.
Sadly, this all really amounts to little, if anything at all. Rather than being violent and realistic urban fighting is frequently quite silly. Young Bobby is caught in the middle of at least half a dozen gang wars, all of which seem so ridiculous in all of them he finds himself involved in. It becomes a challenge to avoid being detached completely after the third time you’ve watched him duck behind a litter bin during a drive-by. He has a deep urge to go see Tobey who is out of prison, handover and rehabilitate him, I never understood it, when we can see those dingy drug hype houses he visits later, tacitly leaves Charles life. Susan’s plot is not better; it is her who decides she is going to be a white knight reporter that is going to do something about youth violence that is taking pictures of gang members and asking them questions such as ‘why don’t you just go back to school’? Both these plots reach maximum absurdity, when she decides to go and try out photography in the middle of a huge gun fight.
Everything is quite foolish, and there’s not a single actor who could make the material suit their needs. Sadly (or happily, based on your assessment of the “so bad its good” type of entertainment), the cast is deep in a plethora of uncontrollable scourge of unfit actors. A stupid American infomercial brand performance kills Susan’s character as an ignorant woman who doesn’t know how deep of a trouble she’s put her family in. Furthermore, while critiquing the role of a young actor is always uncomfortable, DaVault has encapsulated the defect of most child actors. He just doesn’t show up as a real kid, and even the script doesn’t allow him to be with his mother for a brief loving scene. It’s only Quinn who has some grasp of the part and is actively relegated to the sidelines for the most part of the film with only the Iran subplot to keep him busy. Now by the time the last act rolls around and he comes back into the fold, it’s far too late.
Kudos in pointing out that there are few instances when it becomes glaringly evident that Derakhshandeh has some remarkable skills as a filmmaker; it is perhaps an irony that one would expect these situations in a more didactic setting and it is here where John Woo’s low budget movie set comes into play where the firefights are indeed elaborated. Where there are arms and ammunition, the gangbangers are expected to accompany them, and they do just that in an almost C-Grade manner. If the rest of the film was as ridiculously entertaining as this, it would be likened to a PM Entertainment action production. Sorrowfully, a big chunk of the film consists of dull dialogue scenes reminiscent of a “Just Say No” PSA but on a slightly larger budget. It’s so early-90s that it’s hard to believe it came out at the end of the century.
Nevertheless, there is one scene that manages to be satisfying, the problem is that it is not supposed to satisfy the audience. This moment occurs when Susan interviews some gang members and if they are not afraid of going to jail and if, why they refuse to change their lives. The boys ridicule her and rightly deduce that she is an out-of-depth wannabe angel. Then one of these unnamed men says perhaps the only line in the film which can be considered as a convincing line reading.
He might as well have been addressing the filmmakers. “Love Without Frontiers”, a film that proclaims to portray the real world has done an absurd job and placed myriad cultures and issues in such a manner that they are not distinguishable. It may be seen as a vengeful cinematic act. After countless decades of the Middle East’s brutal suffering being cheapened and turned into popcorn sauces, an Iranian film maker effortlessly reframed the pain in the American inner cities. It would be interesting but unfortunately it is pretty boring.
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