Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright Blu-ray Movie Review

. . . But the Past Ain't Through with You

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 31, 2011

A cataclysmic event like the Bernie Madoff scandal hurts many people, but it's a gift to storytellers, because it expands our notion of the possible. Before Madoff, viewers would scoff at the notion of a character who bilked investors for billions while operating openly for years under the noses of authorities. That could never happen, they'd say, adhering to the time-honored principle of most commentators that, to paraphrase Hamlet, if something isn't dreamt of in my own personal philosophy, it can't possibly be.

One clever variation of the Madoff saga has already been spun by the creators of the TV series, Damages. A morally weightier version arrives courtesy of writer-director R. Ellis Frazier, who found himself wondering what would happen if someone like Madoff had gone on the run instead of turning himself in. Where would he go, and who would pursue him? Frazier's fictional con man, Charlie Wright, differed from the real Bernie Madoff in several key respects. He was younger; he had no family; and most important, his Ponzi scheme did not collapse leaving him broke. On the contrary, Wright managed to secrete several billion dollars of ill-gotten gains before he vanished, or at least enough people believe so to make chasing him worth their while. One always assumes that a man with a lot of money will live well, even on the run. But a man with a lot of money who can't go to the authorities lives in constant danger, because he's a target for all sorts of unsavory elements. And that's only part of Charlie Wright's troubles.

The film opens in Los Angeles, where a team led by FBI Agent Hobbs (Mario Van Peebles) is about to arrest Charlie Wright (Aidan Quinn) for perpetrating an $11 billion Ponzi scheme. Wright is camped out at the downtown offices of his investment company, and Hobbs is waiting for word from his partner, Jimmy (Jordan Belfi), that an arrest warrant has been issued. But then Wright suddenly steps into an elevator, and when the dust settles, Wright is missing, and $2 billion dollars are unaccounted for. After six weeks of fruitless pursuit, Hobbs's superior, Director Hill (Corbin Bernsen), begins cutting off his resources.

Wright has gone to Tijuana on a personal quest. He's looking for a woman he knew there twenty-five years ago, presumably long before he became the world's biggest crook. A possible lead is a woman named Mary (Claudia Ferri, recently on AMC's The Killing), who worked at the same bar as the woman from Wright's past. Mary spends her days trying to scrape together enough money to afford high-end beauty products that promise to hold back time, no matter how fleeting their effects. It is unclear whether she will be able to help Charlie.

Agent Hobbs is not the only person interested in Charlie Wright's whereabouts. One of Wright's largest investors was Borlec (Raymond J. Barry), a Russian mobster who'd been a major player in the Eighties but kept a low profile thereafter. Still, losing $100 million is the kind of thing that brings a crime boss out of retirement. Together with his partner, Letvinko (Elya Baskin), Borlec engages a professional killer, Damon (Luke Goss), to find Wright and extract his money. The two Russians have sources of information the FBI lacks, and they know where Wright is. They also provide Damon with a team of professional mercenaries who specialize in operations south of the border (Gary Daniels, Bokeem Woodbine and Geoffrey Ross, who also produced).

The chief authority in Tijuana isn't the police, but the Garza Family, headed by Jorge Garza (Andy Garcia). Nothing of importance happens in Tijuana without the knowledge of the Garzas, including the arrival of a new gringo spending money and asking questions. At this particular moment, the Garza Family has its own problems. It owes substantial funds to a "lender" in Mexico City that it cannot repay. Jorge's wife, Mariel (Gina Gershon), knows that something is desperately wrong, but her husband keeps telling her not to worry. Then he goes off to confer with his younger brother, Gabriel (Danny Pino, from Cold Case).

When the Garzas discover, purely by accident, that a new arrival in town is the Charlie Wright, it appears to be an answer to their prayers. One of the film's best scenes is a speech by Jorge Garza in which he relates how he, a good Catholic all his life, stopped going to church, because he'd begun to doubt the existence of God -- but now he knows that God exists. No sooner have the Garzas gotten their hands on Charlie than they discover how hard it will be to keep him, as Damon and his hired thugs swoop down with automatic weapons. As for Charlie, the sickening realization dawns that evading the FBI was only the beginning.

Across the Line is the rare film where the story exceeds the boundaries of the literal narrative. The characters are so intriguingly vital that the film could have been an entire miniseries, with an hour or more devoted to the backstory of each major player. Part of this effect is due to the writing, but even more is due to the cast's ability to convey a sense of living people with a past that preceded their appearance in the film and a future that extends beyond it (though, in some cases, not very far). Andy Garcia and Danny Pino, in particular, create an intense and moving sense of family bond for which one would have to go back to the Godfather films to find a suitable comparison. Van Peebles' FBI agent, Ferri's Mary and Goss's assassin all convey a sense of personal history that make you wonder about how they became the people they are. That's a rare enough sensation in contemporary American film; to achieve it with so many characters in one movie is truly remarkable. Across the Line has its flaws, including an occasional plot turn that some viewers may find too neat or coincidental, but I regard such things as minor when a filmmaker displays Frazier's ability to infuse a film with the kind of vitality that radiates from almost every frame of this, his second feature. I look forward to what he'll do next.

Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Across the Line is framed on Blu-ray at the odd aspect ratio of 2.00:1. Since the film never had a theatrical release, one cannot say, strictly speaking, that the Blu-ray departs from the original aspect ratio, but then again, 2.00:1 isn't a recognized standard that one could expect to see in a local theater. Since the film was shot digitally with the Red One system, it's possible that this was the camera aspect ratio, as I've been informed that the Red One offers this AR. Then again, the shooting AR could simply have been 1.78:1. No definitive information is provided either way in the supplements. Since Frazier's previous feature, The Line, was shot on film and framed at 2.35:1, it can reasonably be assumed that Across the Line would have had the same AR, if it had ever been released theatrically. In any case, at no point does the Blu-ray image feel cramped on the sides, nor does there appear to be excessive headroom at the top.

The 1080p image has been encoded with the MPEG-2 codec. While this is the least efficient codec available for the job, it manages to perform decently here, because the raw data from the Red One compresses easily. With a few minor exceptions, which I'll get to in a moment, the image is extremely clean and detailed, with deep and solid blacks. Colors are never particularly saturated or intense with the Red One, but they are vivid. The L.A. scenes are dominated by cool blues, even in daytime, while the scenes in and around Tijuana are overwhelmingly yellow, brown and occasionally green. The white attire favored by Jorge Garza and the red dress that Mary puts on for her initial meeting with Charlie stand out vividly.

The handful of shots that show video noise are long shots, all of them aerial, establishing various views of the city and providing transitions. The noise does not appear to be caused by compression, and it was probably part of the original image capture, since it is so specifically limited to these few shots.

Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with The Line, Maya Entertainment has provided a Dolby Digital track, but no lossless option. While the lack of a lossless track is regrettable, I do not count myself among those who consider its omission sufficient to condemn a Blu-ray disc as inadequate. I prefer to listen to what's there on the disc, and in fact the DD 5.1 track on Across the Line is quite impressive. It's a subtle and understated mix that forgoes the more cliched opportunities for bombastic effects (such as the stadium ambush scene) and instead looks for unexpected moments to introduce layers of sound. A notable example occurs in the extended encounter between Charlie Wright and Jorge Garza in a Tijuana police station. The surrounds are alive with distant voices echoing and calling out words you can't make out, but you're very much aware, as Charlie must be, that you're in a strange place where events have outstripped your control and things are happening all around that you don't understand. The film has many such subtle uses of sound.

The original score, credited to Kim Carroll, also makes effective use of the full surround system. Carroll's music often follows an approach pioneered by film composer Maurice Jarre, who believed that a film's music should blend with its sound design and effects. Thus, for example, during the deadly game of stalk and evade that follows the stadium ambush, Carroll has instruments bouncing back and forth within the soundfield, echoing and underlining the action on screen. You don't end up humming his score, because it becomes just another part of the film's events.

Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The back cover of the Blu-ray case indicates that the disc contains "deleted scenes" and director Frazier's short film entitled Baines, but these are nowhere to be found on the disc (unless there's an exceptionally well-hidden easter egg). An additional special feature listed on the case is included:

• Behind The Scenes with Cast Interiews (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 20:29). This is a fairly standard EPK-type promotion piece that is distinguished primarily by its length and the large number of interviewees. They include: Frazier; producers Geoffrey Ross, Justin Nesbitt and Jacov Bresler; editor Mike Wech; and actors Quinn, Pino, Garcia, Van Peebles, Goss, Daniels, Gerson, Belfi and Ferri. Frazier, Quinn, Van Peebles and Garcia provide interesting insights into the script and the characters, but most of the interviews focus on how much the participants enjoyed working on the film, with each other and with Frazier.

Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Like Frazier's previous feature, The Line, Across the Line was made independently, attracted a stellar cast filled with name-recognition actors, but had to be released directly to video when Frazier could not find a theatrical distributor. Don't let the lack of theatrical release dissuade you. The film is technically proficient and has more substance than much contemporary studio product. It caught me by surprise, and I recommend it highly.