Crossover

Year releasted: 1980

by Nathan Rabin
June 5th, 2002

There's a thin line separating sanity and madness, and in Crossover, Oscar-winner James Coburn plays a man who slowly, deliberately crosses it in the most responsible manner imaginable. A devoted male nurse and confirmed bachelor, Coburn works at a close-knit mental hospital where his reassuring manner and access to mood-altering drugs make him a beloved figure among the hospital's residents. The Romeo of the loony bin, Coburn incites within his female patients a libidinal fire that not even heavy doses of tranquilizers can diminish. Chief among his admirers is a fashion-conscious young woman with a propensity for strutting about naked. Eager to win his attention, the clothing-averse patient greets Coburn and company nude, save for Insane Clown Posse-style make-up and a flamboyant hat. Sadly, her efforts only win her a trip to the electroshock table. Sexy female nurse Kate Nelligan also fancies the overworked, oversexed Coburn, but she has additional competition from hot-to-trot housewife Fionnula Flanagan, who seduces Coburn with ribald tales of her youth, bursting with hot nun-on-schoolgirl action. Life as an asylum Casanova is not all fun and games, however: Coburn's mental health takes a turn for the worse when he begins hallucinating that a bespectacled, trenchcoat-sporting man is following him. After treating himself with pills, Coburn is confronted by one of the hospital's residents, who explains the secret world of mental patients and politely suggests that Coburn should let him know if he ever feels like crossing over. Nelligan, meanwhile, offers to move to California with the saintly mental-hospital gigolo, but their plans hit a snag when he insists that they bring along a mental patient he helped escape. Tolerant to a fault, Nelligan agrees, but after their passenger dies, Coburn flips. As Nelligan looks on, Coburn re-enters the mental hospital—this time, in a bit of long-in-the-making irony, as a patient.