Criss Cross

In 1969, as the world watched the Apollo 11 mission unfold, a divorced mother named Tracy Cross raises her 12-year-old son, Christopher, in the laid-back chaos of Key West. Narrated by Chris in a reflective voice, the story unfolds around a boy who sees his life as a series of rough edges and imperfect choices, living in a cheap hotel and trying to find a steady footing in a world that often feels out of reach. The film paints a quiet, intimate portrait of a family doing its best to survive when the odds are stacked against them, balancing warmth with hardship in every ordinary moment.

Tracy Cross works hard to hold things together as a bartender and waitress, while Chris helps with paper routes and delivering fish to help keep the family afloat. The father figure in Chris’s life—an Annapolis-trained fighter pilot who served in Vietnam—carries a heavy, troubling past. He becomes deeply disturbed after a catastrophic act during the war, burning his uniform as a stark symbol of his transformation into something almost unrecognizable to his son. His descent into alcoholism leads him to desert the family and retreat into a commune, choosing distance over reconciliation and leaving Chris with a longing that never fully fades. The bond between father and son remains powerful, even as the son wrestles with love, confusion, and a growing sense of abandonment.

As Chris grows more aware of the cracks in his world, he stumbles into danger almost by accident: he discovers drugs hidden inside the very fish he delivers, a discovery that nudges him toward dabbling in drug dealing out of sheer desperation. Meanwhile, his mother’s struggles push her to make harsh choices, including a job that she’s deeply ashamed of—working as a stripper to support them. Tracy’s candid explanation—that sometimes one must do what is not good to get what is good—adds a blunt, moral tension to the family dynamic and forces Chris to confront the gray areas of adulthood much earlier than he expected. This painful tension fuels Chris’s actions and his fragile sense of right and wrong.

A turning point arrives when a stranger named Joe enters town, formidably charming but shrouded in mystery. Joe develops a complicated relationship with Tracy, and his presence unsettles Chris even further. Unknown to Tracy, Joe is an undercover law-enforcement agent tasked with bringing down the drug operation that has started to pull Chris and his mother into its orbit. The relationship that develops among the three of them—Tracy, Chris, and Joe—complicates the looming arrest and magnifies the stakes for everyone involved. The tension tightens as the drug ring’s reach begins to close in, forcing Chris into decisions that test his loyalty, his courage, and his faith in the people he loves.

The story builds toward a dramatic collision when Chris, delivering the drugs himself, narrowly escapes a deadly outcome that erupts into a gunfight. The danger is real, the consequences immediate, and the night ends with Chris in jail, facing probation. The experience marks a painful but pivotal moment for him and Tracy, prompting a new beginning as they retreat to a more modest, mobile home park life. Tracy makes a conscious choice to retire from her stripping work, signaling a careful, if fragile, step toward rebuilding a semblance of normalcy for their small family.

Throughout the film, the Apollo Moon landing serves as a recurring metaphor, a reminder of humanity’s ability to reach beyond danger and fear toward something larger and more hopeful. In the end, Chris reflects on the astronauts’ return to Earth with a sense of quiet appreciation: no matter how screwed up life can be, there is something profoundly uplifting about simply returning home, grounded and intact, after a journey through chaos. The story closes with the sense that growth can come from pain, and that even in imperfect circumstances, small acts of resilience and love can steer a life toward something more hopeful.

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 06:48