The LadykillerOftentimes, when a film arrives in the shroud of controversy, it can influence the way you enjoy or, conversely, not enjoy a film. When all you want to see are the reasons why people retreat from it, it can be difficult to objectively judge the film. Remember what happened to Lars von Trier's Antichrist? In the case of this film, all anyone could talk about was the graphic and horrific depiction of violence against women. To me, violence against anyone should be abhorred, meaning that the chilled feelings I have against this film have less to do with the violence and more with the execution of the whole piece.
Based on the novel by Jim Thompson, who also provided the source material for The Getaway and The Grifters, the story centers on Lou Ford (Casey Affleck), a deputy sheriff in a small Texas town in the 1950s, the type of place where even the hobos wear jackets and fedora hats. When Ford is sent to run a prostitute (Jessica Alba) out of town, he instead indulges in a violent, sadomasochistic relationship. Ford sociopathic behavior gets amplified when he gets entrenched in a blackmail plot involving the town's most powerful businessman (Ned Beatty) all while trying to have somewhat of a normal life with his blissfully unaware fianceé (Kate Hudson).
I've often wondered if I'll ever see a movie where a single outstanding performance can make up for the rest of a movie's flaws. This is the closest I've seen, as Casey Affleck is astounding here, once again. His soft-spoken mannerisms and baby face charm creates a very chilling performance, and he is able to hide so many layers of subtle complexity right there in his face. It's very comforting to see that Affleck continues to deliver on the promise he showed in The Assassination of Jesse James..., and also that he's surly surpassed his older brother in the acting category.
Next to him, I'd actually say Hudson has the second most interesting role. Her character does fulfill a one-note status in most scenes, but her dynamic report with Affleck offers some of the film's few genuine surprises and emotions. Not to mention that watching her playful energy as she spends most of the film scantily clad is always a delight. The rest of the cast is numerous, but they don't pour as much in their roles to make them necessarily memorable, and almost all of them fade away into the barren background.
In fact, it seems that almost all the performances gets crushed by the film's plot, weighed down immensely by a labored and mechanical script that attempts to bluntly explain away every detail to a bore. Eventually, the plot becomes very muddled, quickly following a rusher of an opening. Michael Winterbottom, whose last film was the overlooked A Might Heart, works well with crafting an eerie and suspenseful mood for a good deal of the film, but most of the time he lets the tone shift pretty inconsistently, fill the air with a cluttered soundtrack, and a ridiculously confused and histrionic ending that begins at the moment Bill Pullman is introduced.
I could almost recommend this film for Affleck, and to a lesser extent, Hudson, alone. However, an interesting character study is drowned heavily by the plot, which leads all the other actors to dissolve in their unimportance and the story to fall apart in its convolution. It's a shame that Affleck and Hudson couldn't have been featured in a movie that lived up to their own talents, but sometimes that's the case. The violence is intense, but not as intense as the marvel you get when watching a great actor out-perform his own material.
B-
Wedding Crashers
In today's day and age, a political documentary is going to take a lot more meaning that just simply telling a story. We are living in very turbulent times, and talking about anything with a political tint is going to stir the pot. However, in the case of this film, there are those who would argue that this isn't a political issue, that this is more about human rights and civil liberties. In that case, the temptation to be really emotional and passionate seems like a real possibility. That's why it's a little sad to see a documentary fall apart in its messages just when it seemed like it could do some real good.
Unless you were hiding under a rock during the 2008 election (and I'm sure some people were), you're probably aware of that notorious piece of legislation in California called Proposition 8, the ballot measure to put into affect the state's constitutional amendment to legally define marriage as the union between a man and a woman, months after California's judicial system ruled in favor of gay marriage. The documentary sheds light on how the Mormon Church was the leading organizers of the proposition, funneling a huge amount of money into campaigning for a movement that goes with their political chord, but against others who protested dearly.
The first hour or so of the film, I thought, did a credible job of simply explaining the situation without necessarily being a hatchet job to the Mormon Church. Showing how the church executed a highly calculated plan of how they did it, as well as the matter-of-fact approach to why this issue is so important to them always feels like it's a bad action, but not one that is unjustified in the logic that the church uses. There's also a nice balance between the political and personal side, as the exploits with a young, gay couple, newly minted in marriage, is a nice play as well.
However, the film changes in tone about halfway through, and the attacks against the church do start to feel more hostile and without the balanced arguments. By the time the film gets into issues such as the high homeless and suicide rate for gay Mormon teens, they start to feel tangental to the thesis of the film and more like filler for a documentary barely filling out eighty minutes. Since the film does indulge on subplots, it was disheartening to see the film not explore the issue of the black vote during that election, and discussing how that was used as a smokescreen would have given the film a bit more bite and focus than it ultimately had in its final acts. Plus, all the way through, the narration by Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk and a gay Mormon himself, is quite bland and doesn't carry enough importance.
This is the type of film that's not going to change anybody's opinions. You know from the get-go whether or not you agree with the message on hand, and if you don't you're going to steer clear. As someone who does agree, I was onboard with the straight (forgive the pun) approach to focusing on the reasons why this happened and being as balanced as possible. I wasn't onboard with more hostile tone in the second half and meandering issues that got off point and left other, more meaningful, meandering issues out to dry. If you want a real comprehensive study on Prop 8, you'll come up short here. But if you're interested, it will give you at least some perspective.
B-
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