ZigZag (2002) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

This film was the directorial debut of David S Goyer, who penned the two Blade movies. He was reunited with his designated action star, Wesley Snipes.

So what kind of movie is it? An escapist fantasy? A dark adventure? A shoot-em-up action picture?

It couldn't be farther from what you'd expect. It's a gentle urban tale about a mildly autistic kid with an abusive father. The dad (Snipes) is an addict who tells the 15 year old kid that he'll get an even worse beating than usual, and will also end up homeless, if he doesn't come up with the rent money. The kid is working as a dishwasher, and his ability to remember numbers helps him to open the restaurant safe and take out the nightly proceeds. He goes home with $9,000, which his dad promptly expropriates.

All of this is revealed to the kid's Big Brother (John Leguizamo), who genuinely cares for the boy. Leguizamo immediately realizes that he has to figure out a way to get the money back in that safe before the police figure out the whole thing. Unfortunately, the wastrel dad has already disposed of the money, and Leguizamo ends up borrowing the money from a loan shark.

The race is then on, as they attempt to return the money and undo the crime before the savvy detective can solve it.

There was one scene that brought me to tears. Lyonne asks the kid about his favorite day with his Big Brother, and she expects him to talk about Disneyland or something. The kid talks about the time that he and the Big Brother stole his dad's baseball bat, which was the weapon of choice for beatings. They took the bat to a bridge, and Big Brother let the kid throw it off the edge, then the two of them camped out under the bridge and ate hot dogs. The scene was turned into genius by the kid's recital of the story, followed by Lyonne's initial reaction and her immediate tough-ass return to character.

The ending was not without plenty of sadness, but I found it completely satisfactory emotionally, and realistic enough that I accepted it as a having been logically derived from the preceding action.

It is really a damned good movie which manages to be touching without ever stooping to any stirring speeches, swelling music, sappy sentimentalism, phony-baloney romance, convenient coincidences, or other Hollywood contrivances. The characters seem so real that you think you know them. Snipes had only a small part as the abusive dad, but he did his usual good job, and the rest of the case was really first-rate, especially the underrated Leguizamo and the kid.