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Affliction (1997)
Misses the mark
I really wanted to love this film. On the surface, it has so many elements that usually lead to great storytelling. Tremendous cast, bubbling tension, strained parent-child relationship (several of them, mind you), winter in a bleak small town, who-done-it murder plot, a main character with heavy flaw, etc.
It just does not deliver. I hate to say it, but the acting is a big part of the problem here. Coburn is a legend, no doubt, but it feels like he just phoned this one in. Such a one-dimensional performance. All the old man can be is cruel, angry and abusive the whole movie? Maybe the script didn't allow itself for other moments, so I guess I can give him a pass on this one. Sissy is great but she doesn't really have much to do in this one. Feels like her talent is wasted as all she really does is simply exist as Nolte's girlfriend. As for Nolte, well, what a letdown. I've been a champion for him for years. He's never given a bad performance until this. It's not that he doesn't embody the character well, because he does. He just makes some awful choices here and there but there's so many that it adds up to an overall obnoxious performance. Most annoying is his speech. He spends about 20% of the movie screaming like a mental patient, 10% of the movie speaking like a normal human being and the other 70% whispering and mumbling. I could barely get my TV loud enough to make out what he was saying and even sometimes had to turn on CC to fully comprehend.
The overall plot was good. Maybe we could have spent a little less time on his father-daughter drama and issues with his ex, but overall, the story was set up to work. Police officer in a small town investigating a suspicious death of a wealthy man with some enemies. That usually works. He can go down so many rabbit holes trying to solve this and also deal with his own problems that get in the way (in this case, we may have gotten too focused on those problems). Adding in the toothache seemed odd. I mean, sure, the guy's got issues with his daughter, his ex, his father, his boss, a local rich guy, etc. I guess a tooth bothering him would just add to the noise (I know it would in MY life), but it just doesn't feel necessary. The guy's got enough noise to make him go nuts. We really didn't need this. Nolte's character though, just acts and does things that seem beyond reasonable. I know, most people are not reasonable and EVERY person acts unreasonably from time to time. But I found his actions in this story to just be too over-the-top and ridiculous. I have no problem with movies where you feel like you're outside of reality, but those are DESIGNED to be that way. This is a movie that is supposed to occur in the real-world and the decisions and actions taken by Wade (Nolte) just do not reflect that.
I guess I thought it would more like Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan". I wasn't expecting a replica of that by any means, but I feel like that's the path this movie could have taken. Not in plot, obviously, as they are two massively different stories, but in terms of tone. In ASP, you have an ordinarily good man who gets caught up and does some awful things all in the name of greed. There's no money motive for Wade here, but he just does awful things because he sucks as a person for no apparent reason besides frustration and a toothache.
One final note, I know it's trivial, but the name "Twombley" just got obnoxious after a while too. I get that this is based on a novel and that's what the author wrote, but man, hearing all of these coherent adult characters say "Twombley" over and over again just got to be too much. It honestly sounded like a bunch of kids learning how to speak and incorrectly adding a "W" sound to the name "Trombley". We SO could have just used "Trombley" instead. Would not have messed with the plot.
I'm giving it 4 stars because it was done well in terms of technical filmmaking. But the story and performances really should make it a 3. Don't bother. Just watch "A Simple Plan" instead.
The Power of One (1992)
Don't watch this if you've read the book.
My opinion on this film is clearly biased, as I finished reading the book about a month before watching this adaptation. I admit that. Maybe if I hadn't read the book, I might give a higher rating......but not by much. Here goes.
Bryce Courtenay's novel is completely butchered here. I understand that with a large novel, it's impossible to tell the entire story without leaving things out, so I get why some things had to be cut. But man, they cut extremely important things and had the gall to fill that space with stuff that wasn't even in the novel. PK had no love interest. Thanks Hollywood for trying to "Hollywood" this story to sell it, but we don't need it. Most of us don't require a love tale to enjoy a story. So adding this girl was pointless. She did nothing to enhance the story of PK, just distracted him and took time away from the real people that made him who he was (Doc, Hoppie, Geel). These three characters are EXTREMELY important to PK's story and growth and we barely see them at all. I understand cutting out the big lady that fell on the train, cutting out the servant girls, cutting out Miss Bornstein, and I guess even having mother die instead of live didn't really have all that much effect on the story or PK, but nearly half of the book takes place during the time when PK is training with Geel and Doc is in prison. This movie makes that all take about 20 minutes out of 120 run time. The rest is devoted to his love interest and teaching kids, two things he never did. I really wish we could have seen something from the copper mines instead of this made-up stuff. And the final showdown between PK and the judge could have been WAY better had it gone down like in the novel.
Aside from the ruined story, this movie was okay. Direction and production seemed fine. Acting wasn't that great, though. I was surprised that Morgan Freeman wasn't very good in it. Maybe I'm judging him based on his other work, where he was ALWAYS been brilliant. But he seemed to be phoning it in here. Could be poor direction or lack of belief in this project. I'm unsure. Either way, don't expect any Oscar-worthy performances here. Another thing that annoyed me was the narration. We are hearing the life story of someone that is an adult now. So why do we need to hear the narration of his childhood years in the voice of a child? The kid that did the first narration was so difficult to understand it was frustrating. Just have Dorff do it so we can comprehend.
Not a movie I would suggest at all, ESPECIALLY for anyone that has read the novel. You will be very disappointed.
Highland Park (2013)
I'm sorry, but this script was awful.
Let me start by saying this: I really really wanted to like this movie. I loved the concept, I lived a few miles from the actual Highland Park, MI when they were filming this, and I really like Parker Posey, Danny Glover, and John Carrol Lynch. Always thought they were great actors. I tried so hard to like this movie because I really wanted to like it. But it's bad. Really bad. Because this script was atrocious. The characters aren't believable, the plot is predictable, the dialogue is corny. Side note: they really didn't do much research about the actual Highland Park for this movie. That or they chose to ignore what they found. This movie has a staggering number of white folks for taking place in a city of about 11,000 people, with less than 4% of them white. I could go on, but let's just end it here. Don't watch this movie. You don't want it to ruin your opinions of some decent actors. I feel bad for the crew that worked on this. They did a fine job. Sound, lighting, ect. All of it is good. Visually, no complaints from me (save the fact that in one scene the main character drove from his house in HP to a closed library in HP and yet he inexplicably had to drive past the old Michigan Central Station, which is located several miles south in Detroit, outside the city of Highland Park). This movie is just a sad example of how talented people and a good concept can be ruined by awful writing.