There is much that is really standout about this movie, so much so that I'll hesitantly recommend it. Still, this is a deeply flawed movie, and it's frustrating, because it could've/should've been so much better than it turned out to be.
The good parts: it's utterly beautifully shot. In a fine year for cinematography in the movies this is some kind of high point, and is probably recommendable on that basis alone. (It demands to be seen on the big screen.) Production design is amazing -- you can smell the sweat and filth on these characters. The direction is remarkable all around, especially the framing of the shots. And it's impeccably acted up and down the line -- Ray Winstone in particular takes a very contrived character and makes him human and believable. It's a remarkable performance, in it's way, and I'd love to see him get an Oscar nomination for it.
The script is the big problem. It's very weak -- the plot makes no sense, the moments of Solemnity are pompous and cheesily pretentious, and many of these characters don't "exist" so much as they are poetic conceptions, stand-ins for ideas about violence. The movie is predictable in it's twists and very difficult to take seriously -- which is what it so obviously wants to be.
Very reminiscent to my mind of A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, another movie where bravura movie-making overwhelms a substandard script.
The good parts: it's utterly beautifully shot. In a fine year for cinematography in the movies this is some kind of high point, and is probably recommendable on that basis alone. (It demands to be seen on the big screen.) Production design is amazing -- you can smell the sweat and filth on these characters. The direction is remarkable all around, especially the framing of the shots. And it's impeccably acted up and down the line -- Ray Winstone in particular takes a very contrived character and makes him human and believable. It's a remarkable performance, in it's way, and I'd love to see him get an Oscar nomination for it.
The script is the big problem. It's very weak -- the plot makes no sense, the moments of Solemnity are pompous and cheesily pretentious, and many of these characters don't "exist" so much as they are poetic conceptions, stand-ins for ideas about violence. The movie is predictable in it's twists and very difficult to take seriously -- which is what it so obviously wants to be.
Very reminiscent to my mind of A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, another movie where bravura movie-making overwhelms a substandard script.