Wow. I haven't waited this anxiously for a movie to end in quite a while. Weak acting (under and over) is the least of its problems, with scene after scene chugging by like freight cars on a very boring stretch of track. Actors seem to pause at the start of each scene as though waiting for the starter's pistol and then lurch into action, which I take to be the director's fault. The contrived blocking mirrors the clumsy script, both utterly failing to elicit emotion in scenes meant to convey tension, humiliation, tenderness, and rage. The settings and some shots were very good, but if you're going to waggle a camera around by hand at all in a film, you should try to do something interesting with it.
In the end, a painful script and heavy-handed direction drag this movie into the mire. It's a real pity, because the underlying premise and the surrounding issues are so promising. The (also deeply-flawed) movie "Max", treads some of the same ground, historically at any rate, and does it better. Oh, and the sound mix was irritatingly uneven (DTS version).
In the end, a painful script and heavy-handed direction drag this movie into the mire. It's a real pity, because the underlying premise and the surrounding issues are so promising. The (also deeply-flawed) movie "Max", treads some of the same ground, historically at any rate, and does it better. Oh, and the sound mix was irritatingly uneven (DTS version).