A hard-boozing caseworker grimaces his way around St Louis in Michele Civetta’s overblown urban thriller
Not quite credible enough to stand up as a gritty, 70s-esque social drama, and lacking the focus of the Training Day-style urban thriller it’s marketed as, Michele Civetta’s second feature is an awkward but passably entertaining blend of both. The Gateway is the nickname for the Missouri city of St Louis, rough terrain shepherded by seen-it-all social worker Parker (a lead role for blockbuster fringe player Shea Whigham). Sipping Jameson miniatures as he does his rounds, he becomes particularly concerned about Dahlia (Olivia Munn) and Ashley (Taegen Burns), after the latter’s dad Mike (Zach Avery) is released from prison.
Civetta, who also co-wrote, is not one for understatement. Not only is Parker a hard-boozing caseworker, he’s also an orphan (abandoned by Bruce Dern’s jazz-trumpeter dad) as well as a former prizefighting champ. With slicked-back hair, a grimace and a cig permanently on the go, Whigham plays him like welfare’s own Dirty Harry. He’s at odds with his boss, decks a colleague for leching at Dahlia, and unsolicited visits to his wards are his equivalent of roughing up suspects.