Co-produced by Killer Films (the folks who brought you such different yet worthy films as "Boys Don't Cry", "Happiness", and "I'm Not There" ), and directed by Daniel Minahan (who has since directed for "Six Feet Under", "Deadwood", "True Blood", and "Game of Thrones"), the setup is that a television show selects people to try and kill each other, as chosen by some sort of goverment sanctioned lottery (foreshadowing of those pesky 'Death Panels'?) Anyone who's ever sat through an episode of "The Amazing Race" will respond to the cinematography and editing of the film, which is exactly like a reality-style program. Even the schmaltzy moments with the contenders and their friends or family members are perfect imitations of diary room entries from "Big Brother", and there are some songs in the movie that would be perfectly at home sending contestants out on "American Idol". Though the material is played completely straight, there are many instances of morbid humor in the film (i.e. Lindsay modeling the bulletproof vest her boyfriend bought her), and there is violence, presented in an unapologetic, straightforward manner; often brutally so.
The central character is Dawn, the reigning champion of the series, who is heavily pregnant and not even trying to be a sympathetic character. She is a woman who stalks into a convenience store, shoots a man in the back, and the asks the clerk for bean dip. The other newly chosen contenders consist of a middle-aged unemployed family man (Tony), an elderly retiree (Franklin), an older female nurse (Connie), a teenage student (Lindsay), and a young man in his thirties, who knew Dawn in school, and is a stage three cancer patient (Jeffrey).
Brooke Smith gives a strong, fearless performance as Dawn. The actress is best remembered for her role as a senator's kidnapped daughter in "The Silence of the Lambs", and here she is equally real. She never plays for audience sympathy, and is very matter-of-fact about her participation on the show, her pregnancy, and how she relates to her family and the other contenders; it was one of the strongest performances by an actress in 2001, certainly more compelling to me than other, more prominent work done in better-known films.
Connie, played by Mary Louise Burke, has no trouble reconciling her career as a healer with her participation in the series, and her character's rather easy acceptance of the rules of the killing game are actually more chilling to consider than that of Dawn. She is the only character to have a spiritual nature, but going to confession, she issues forth with a laundry list of minor sins, completely leaving out the murders she's committed. To Connie, these aren't sins, or at least sins she must atone for; rather, they are just the things that she has to do.
The other primary contender, Jeffrey, is played by Glenn Fitzgerald (who gave a very strong performance in another indie movie from the early 2000's, "Tully"). Fitzgerald is very good, in what feels like a difficult role, which lets him down because it isn't as strongly developed as that of Dawn or Connie. The details of his relationships with Dawn and his wife are revealed, but there seems to be much more to the character than we are given access to. Perhaps the role was written as slightly vague, or perhaps the look in Jeffrey's eyes does not mean to reveal hidden things, but is rather a creation on the part of Fitzgerald. The twist in the narrative near the end is completely in line with where the story has taken us so far, but the 're-enactment' angle is a cop-out, and very disappointing after you've invested so much in the performances of Smith and Fitzgerald.
No comments:
Post a Comment