STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Parole officer Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) is very near retirement and certainly has no longing for anything that could upset his system too much. So it's unfortunate for him that he crosses paths with Gerald Creeson (Edward Norton) a convicted arsonist coming up for parole after serving a long stretch for manslaughter. Creeson takes him on a journey of awakening and enlightenment with his attempts to improve himself and things are further complicated when his lover Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) approaches him and they find themselves embarking on an affair.
Here's a sleek, glossy looking film with a big name star list that's found it's way straight to DVD. Not a fate it's fully deserving of, but Stone is still an anti-climactic none event of a film, unsure of the direction it's heading in and unable to engage as fully as it should as a result. Despite reliably stellar performances from lead stars De Niro and Norton (you wish they could have worked together in something more dynamite) and a quiet, haunting atmosphere and use of slow motion camera shots and the sound being drowned out, the film meanders uncertainly between drama and thriller territory, leaving the viewer without a clear narrative to follow and having less of an impact as a result. A number of sub plots are left undeveloped, which could have given the film more background and depth, and so the end impression does feel a little sloppy and messy. Which is a shame, as this really isn't a bad film, just one that never allows itself to develop into the sum of it's parts.
De Niro is making far worse stuff than this nowadays, but it seems even when something that sparks of quality comes his way, it never manages to come off like it would of in his heyday. ***
Parole officer Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) is very near retirement and certainly has no longing for anything that could upset his system too much. So it's unfortunate for him that he crosses paths with Gerald Creeson (Edward Norton) a convicted arsonist coming up for parole after serving a long stretch for manslaughter. Creeson takes him on a journey of awakening and enlightenment with his attempts to improve himself and things are further complicated when his lover Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) approaches him and they find themselves embarking on an affair.
Here's a sleek, glossy looking film with a big name star list that's found it's way straight to DVD. Not a fate it's fully deserving of, but Stone is still an anti-climactic none event of a film, unsure of the direction it's heading in and unable to engage as fully as it should as a result. Despite reliably stellar performances from lead stars De Niro and Norton (you wish they could have worked together in something more dynamite) and a quiet, haunting atmosphere and use of slow motion camera shots and the sound being drowned out, the film meanders uncertainly between drama and thriller territory, leaving the viewer without a clear narrative to follow and having less of an impact as a result. A number of sub plots are left undeveloped, which could have given the film more background and depth, and so the end impression does feel a little sloppy and messy. Which is a shame, as this really isn't a bad film, just one that never allows itself to develop into the sum of it's parts.
De Niro is making far worse stuff than this nowadays, but it seems even when something that sparks of quality comes his way, it never manages to come off like it would of in his heyday. ***