Starring Sebastian Spence, Crystal Bublé, and Bif Naked. Rated 14A. Opens Friday, April 20, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

A crime-family drama alternately set in a little-known ethnic enclave and the underbelly of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Crossing is an uneasy blend of disparate elements struggling to settle into a style.

The best parts come courtesy of the leads, Sebastian Spence and Crystal Bublé, as a would-be crime lord and a young hooker who finds his hidden kink. Spence is thoughtfully charismatic as Daniel Cimmerman, heir to a Croatian-Canadian crime biz, whose late father (L. Harvey Gold, seen in flashbacks) pushed him to go straight—in several senses of the word. The smartly tailored son is about to wed the pretty daughter (Tara Wilson) of another tough gangster, cementing two leading crime clans.

His plans to go legit are sent awry when thieves attack him on the way to a special delivery. (Guys carrying wads of cash around at night is one of the film's numerous implausibilities.) An encounter with one freaky robber, a scarred woman (Bif Naked) who dresses like a man, leaves him oddly aroused. He is further unnerved by Bublé's good-natured prostitute, street-named Davina, whom he meets at a pal's stag party. She's in the employ of an ambitious hustler known as Uncle Bunny (Alan C. Peterson, currently seen in Shooter), who suspects that young Cimmerman's quirks can be exploited for profit.

Blackmail is such an ugly word, but that's the plan when Davina lures Daniel into silk stockings and a feather boa, exercising her true passion—photography—to no-good ends, all in the hope of getting free of Uncle Bunny's clutches.

Once these elements are set in motion, and the participants start jockeying for position, Crossing gets a nice rhythm going and screenwriters Roger Evan Larry and Sandra Tomc's dialogue sharpens up. But the criminal and cultural milieux don't really add much meaning to the proceedings and, in fact, necessitate a big shootout finish that appears to tax the actors. Director Larry, who clearly enjoys putting the cast in funky situations, has trouble resolving genre conventions once the clichés kick in, especially for the not-big-enough finish. Ultimately, the unconventional aspects just aren't fascinating enough to make up for the dull parts.