Family Dynamics Provide Unusual Journey Down ‘Gun Hill Road’

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Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Who you are at birth eventually becomes entangled in where and how you are nurtured throughout your life. Given who you are, did you get the proper care, encouragement and love? Did you get to blossom into the best part of your nature? The new film “Gun Hill Road” explores these questions, filtered through the family, in an odd and poignant way.

Written and directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green, Gun Hill Road is a clash of cultural attitudes within one three person family. It tests the boundaries of love and trust within that family on the mean Bronx streets (the nickname of the area is the title) and dares to graphically punctuate it with the journey of a transgender teenager. The film is set in a macho, posturing culture, but it is the transitioning teen that exhibits the most courage.

Esai Morales is Enrique, a tough-as-nails convict who finishes his sentence as the movie begins. He is assigned a parole officer named Thompson (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and hopes to to turn his life around and rejoin his family, which includes wife Angela (Judy Reyes) and son Michael (Harmony Santana). Once the homecoming wears down, Enrique must face limited job prospects, a distant wife and a son who is far different than he ever remembered.

Sustenance: Harmony Spangler (left) as Michael, Esai Morales as Enrique and Judy Reyes as Angela in ‘Gun Hill Road’ Photo credit: Motion Film Group

That son Michael is going through a transition of his own. He is also “Vanessa,” a female persona that he has adopted on the way to hopefully getting a full sex change. He lives a double life, but the secret he keeps is infiltrated by street spies and that information gets back to his father. Blindly angry, Enrique lashes out inappropriately, which begins a downward spiral that ends up changing all their lives.

This is an odd combination of stories, “The Crying Game” crossed with “Mi Familia,” and although it’s titled Gun Hill Road, that only refers to the setting and not the circumstances. Seeing a brooding Esai Morales on the movie poster (his son in the background), combined with the title, would lead the film goer to think this is a pure Hispanic-themed street story. That is deceptive, and doesn’t do any favors for the delicate subject matter.

This is the story of Michael/Vanessa, and Harmony Santana (a true-life transgender) is the heart and pain in the emotional journey. This is a sensitive analysis of what such a transition entails, as the 18 year old achingly knows that he needs to make the change. Given a generalized Hispanic man background in an urban neighborhood, with all the machismo on display that is part of a survival instinct, a slight and vulnerable boy dressing the essence of who he is – and knows he is – becomes the bravest soul on the mean streets. Santana has been there, channeling it through her spot-on performance.

When the story turns away from Michael, it gets a bit confusing and doesn’t give as much to his parents. The mother is with another man through her husband’s incarceration, but Judy Reyes seems confused on where her character loyalties lie. Does she ultimately protect her son or give in to the demands of a powerless husband? The narrative doesn’t make it clear and because of that her performance is tenuous at best. Esai Morales, a fine character actor, can’t get a handle on how to expressly communicate the conflict in Enrique’s situation. Again, because their motivations are unclear, the inner workings of the parents are unclear.

Reflection: Esai Morales Contemplates Life in ‘Gun Hill Road’ Photo credit: Motion Film Group

This a plea for tolerance, but at the same time the film wants to expose the harsh realities of a lower middle class Hispanic boy in the Bronx wanting to be a woman, and that is where the strength of the film percolates. Life is difficult enough without blowing up familial, cultural and societal ties, which as revealed means as much to the son (in a different way) as it does to the father. The ending is classic, with a non-sentimental truth that connects the two men together for probably the last time, their relationship the victim of their own selfish expectations.

Who says there are no new stories at the movies? The gaps that are bridged in empathizing with Michael’s struggle is inherent in all of our struggles, especially when in transition. Did you get to blossom into the best part of your nature?

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com