4 / 10
Official trailer
The Forger is Philip Martin’s 2014 American crime drama. The film depicts Boston art forger Raymond Cutter who cuts a deal with a crime boss to get out of prison early and spend time with his terminally ill teenage son. John Travolta plays Cutter. Tye Sheridan plays his son Will. Christopher Plummer plays Cutter’s father Joseph. Jennifer Ehle plays Cutter’s ex-wife Kim. Richard D’Ovidio wrote the screenplay. Code Entertainment produced the film, which received limited theatrical release before transitioning to home video. The work represents one of the entries in Travolta’s late-career filmography.
The work struggles between dramatic family content and the art forgery procedural that the title promises.
Neither dimension receives sufficient development to support the runtime. The Travolta performance maintains commitment despite the screenplay’s failure to provide suitable material. The Plummer supporting performance suggests what stronger surrounding material could have produced. The film works at the reduced craft tone that Travolta’s late-career commercial productions typically maintain. The result is acceptable home video product that doesn’t justify considerable viewer commitment.
Travolta’s The Forger disappoints more than a forgettable movie should, because the pieces for a decent one are sitting right there. It has Travolta, Plummer and a premise with a clock ticking inside it, and the film shrugs at all three. I kept waiting for it to decide what it wanted to be, and it never does.
The Travolta Late Career
John Travolta’s late filmography leans heavily on home video filler, and The Forger sits squarely in the filler. Travolta gives it more commitment than the script deserves, and I respect him for showing up with that much when the material offers so little. That reliability is the most I can say for his work here.
The Forger represents the commercial side of that late career. Audiences interested in late Travolta should distinguish between these categories instead of treating the entire late filmography as uniform.
For Writers
Late career filmographies typically include both commercial and creative work that work at different tones. Apply this to creative work broadly. Consider how to distinguish between your commercial and creative projects when audiences engage with your full output.
The Plummer Supporting Performance
Plummer’s turn as Cutter’s father Joseph is the best thing in the film by a wide margin. He brings an authority the script never matches, and every scene with him makes me wish the movie had been built around three generations of these men. It shows what the film could have been with stronger material, and that’s what stings.
The casting reflects production decisions that seek established performers for limited screen time instead of developing strong material across the full runtime. The technique can produce dramatic moments but can’t save film whose foundation doesn’t support the contribution. Plummer’s filmography included heavy late-career work that worked at consistently higher tone than the surrounding commercial productions typically supported.
For Writers
Strong supporting contributions can produce dramatic moments without saving broader weak work. Apply this to creative work broadly. Consider whether your work distributes investment across all elements or concentrates it in specific contributions that can’t save broader structural problems.
The Genre Confusion
The film tries to be a family drama and an art forgery procedural and commits to neither. The forgery material is too thin to satisfy anyone who came for the con, and the family material is too thin for a story about a dying son. That second failure is the worse one, because a father bargaining his way out of prison to spend time with his terminally ill kid should wreck an audience, and this version barely registers.
The technique reflects commercial calculation about appealing to multiple audiences at the same time. The completed film satisfies neither audience effectively. Viewers seeking art forgery cinema should engage with The Best Offer (2013) or other more committed procedural alternatives. Viewers seeking dying-child family drama should engage with stronger entries in that subgenre. The Forger doesn’t justify selection over more committed alternatives.
For Writers
Commercial calculation about appealing to multiple audiences at the same time typically damages both potential storylines instead of producing successful fusion. Apply this to fiction. Consider whether your work commits fully to dramatic territory or attempts to satisfy multiple audiences through unsuccessful compromise.
Craft Note
The Martin direction maintains professional commercial standard without distinguishing the work from broader home video product. Commercial direction at this tone requires meeting professional standards instead of developing distinctive contributions. The completed film is competent commercial product within its production category.
Should you skip The Forger?
I give The Forger a 4 because it wastes Plummer, gives Travolta nothing to push against and fumbles a dying-son story that should have been impossible to fumble. It’s home video product that fills a shelf and leaves no mark. Watch it only if you’re completing Travolta’s filmography.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The Forger: Toronto Review, The Hollywood Reporter
- The Forger (2014 film), Wikipedia
- The Forger (2014), IMDb
