Guns are bad. They fire bullets. They hurt people.
That's the message "American Gun" hits its audience over the head with, using all the grace and finesse of a pistol whipping.
Director Aric Avelino seems intent on crafting an all-angles exposé on the proliferation and influence of guns in society, the way "Traffic" did for drugs and "Syriana" did for oil.
Unfortunately, the film comes closer to doing for firearms what "Jurassic Park 3" did for dinosaurs. It showed lots of 'em, had them kill a few people and made you wish it would end sooner than it did.
Avelino cuts back and forth among loosely related ongoing stories, each less interesting than the last. The meat of the story surrounds an Oregon community's recovery three years after a Columbine-style massacre.
Marcia Gay Harden plays Janet, the overworked single mother of one of the killers, and neighbors still hold her indirectly responsible for the black cloud over the town, as well as the deaths of their sons and daughters.
People are also reading…
Janet works double shifts to keep up with the mortgage and feed and clothe her remaining son, David (Chris Marquette), who ungratefully stews with bitterness the way teenagers do. As an offshoot to the Janet and David tale, Frank (Tony Goldwyn), the police officer on hand at the time of the school shootings, struggles to piece together his psyche.
Two story lines extend from an inner-city Chicago high school, where beleaguered principal Carter (Forest Whitaker) struggles to keep the peace. Metal detectors line the entrances, but that doesn't deter punks from trying to sneak their weapons through. Carter lives in a state of constant paranoia, plagued on all sides by frustrated parents, antagonistic students and a wife who doesn't understand why he works such long hours.
One reason is Jay (Arlen Escarpeta), a good student who decides he must take extreme measures to protect himself. Working nights at a convenience store, Jay faces violent alcoholics regularly, and when his life is threatened he gets a gun, then faces expulsion when he takes it to school.
The least interesting segments of the film involve Virginia college student Mary-Anne (Linda Cardellini) and her poor relationship with her gun-shop-owner granddad, Carl (Donald Suther-land). Mary-Anne starts off abhorring guns, but a frightening experience at a party changes her mind.
The stories have little to do with one another except that they all include guns. For that matter, Avelino may as well have pasted together snippets of action movies.
The result would have been just as crass, but at least it might have been entertaining.
review
American Gun
**
Rated: R for violent content and language
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Marcia Gay Harden, Linda Cardellini
Director: Aric Avelino
Family call: This is a film with adult themes and not intended for children.
Running time: 95 minutes
Opens Friday at: The Loft
