Starring: Mario Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Viggo Mortensen
I remember when this movie came out years ago and I chose not to see it, despite its rave reviews, because of its notoriously grizzly and shocking scenes of violence. I have been reading review after review, however, claiming that such scenes are not gratuitous, but are meaningful, integral to the story, and meant to shock you, so that you feel the real impact of violence on people's lives. So I decided to take a chance and see it.
The film begins with the "bad guys." They are having a slow morning at their motel. They are tired from too many days on the job, and move with sluggish reluctance. This is an interesting way to begin the film. So often films of this sort begin with the protagonist, and to start with the antagonists puts the audience on their side for a moment, starts the film off from their perspective. I won't give away the rest of the scene, but I will say that it ends with a whimpering child, holding a doll, and cuts to an angelic looking child screaming after a nightmare, in the home of the "hero," Tom Stahl. This is a cheap trick. It strips the scenes of their credibility (you can see in the girl's eyes that the director just said, "Ok, and remember after I say 'action' you scream and don't look at the camera") and is clearly an easy and in-genuine tug at our heartstrings.
Looking back on the film I see scenes rather than substance, scripted lines rather than atmosphere, cut-out characters rather than real people.
This is an interesting idea, and one with great potential, but it is hardly fulfilled here.
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