A very disadvantaged teenager (Reese Witherspoon) is about to get taken in to care so decides to make a run for grannies house. Clearly and explicitly a rewrite of Little Red Riding Hood although it has more to do with Natural Born Killers or Pulp Fiction than anything read to small children.
There are movies in America that seem to take the view that killing is not killing, guns are not guns and death is death. This a perfect example. While set in the "real world" so much bad happens with such regularity that you know that you are living in pulp fiction (small case) city.
Indeed the over-the-top regularity of bad things happening leads many to read this as a black comedy. This is surely a mistake as black comedy comes from irony or the unknowing. One human being shooting another (very much wishing them to be dead) is not black comedy.
While many bad things happen, the movie isn't clever enough to only let bad things happen to those that really deserve it. Many lines/scenes seem to designed to shock and titillate - including child sex or at least descriptions of it.
Like Tarantino director Matthew Bright forgets that less is sometimes more, and the threat of stepping over the line can be as dramatic as actually doing so. Sadly the director/writer Matthew Bright thinks that the drama only occurs if threat is then turned in to action.
Although it does know a thing about having your cake and eating it to. Especially in the scenes between the fleeing Witherspoon and the creepy Kieifer Sutherland.
What prevents this film from falling apart totally is the acting. Witherspoon is a total revelation in the lead role in that we normally see her as a sweet girl. Here her tiny face and pout are much more deadly -- indeed what we have here is bordering on the psychopathic.
While many might read my comments as indicating that I didn't like the film it has its black charms and is very watchable. It is actually a product of what I call "the new wild west" -- movies in which characters crash about the place doing whatever they like and march to the beat of their own drum.
Funny to some -- on a movie screen -- they are never funny in real life.
There are movies in America that seem to take the view that killing is not killing, guns are not guns and death is death. This a perfect example. While set in the "real world" so much bad happens with such regularity that you know that you are living in pulp fiction (small case) city.
Indeed the over-the-top regularity of bad things happening leads many to read this as a black comedy. This is surely a mistake as black comedy comes from irony or the unknowing. One human being shooting another (very much wishing them to be dead) is not black comedy.
While many bad things happen, the movie isn't clever enough to only let bad things happen to those that really deserve it. Many lines/scenes seem to designed to shock and titillate - including child sex or at least descriptions of it.
Like Tarantino director Matthew Bright forgets that less is sometimes more, and the threat of stepping over the line can be as dramatic as actually doing so. Sadly the director/writer Matthew Bright thinks that the drama only occurs if threat is then turned in to action.
Although it does know a thing about having your cake and eating it to. Especially in the scenes between the fleeing Witherspoon and the creepy Kieifer Sutherland.
What prevents this film from falling apart totally is the acting. Witherspoon is a total revelation in the lead role in that we normally see her as a sweet girl. Here her tiny face and pout are much more deadly -- indeed what we have here is bordering on the psychopathic.
While many might read my comments as indicating that I didn't like the film it has its black charms and is very watchable. It is actually a product of what I call "the new wild west" -- movies in which characters crash about the place doing whatever they like and march to the beat of their own drum.
Funny to some -- on a movie screen -- they are never funny in real life.