Frailty

Bill Paxton's Frailty has a fascinating premise. It plays on the often used Usual Suspects structure, with McConaughey's misterious Fenton Meiks entering an FBI building and confessing the story of his murderous father to an agent working on a mass-murder case. His father, Dad Meiks (Bill Paxton) one day woke his two sons to tell them that he had been visited by an angel, and his new purpose in life was to kill 'demons', whose names were supplied to him by God. The younger son, Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) believes him; the older son, Fenton (Matt O'Leary, a younger version of McConaughey's character) does not.

Don't be fooled by the childish sounding premise - this is a very serious and often deeply disturbing film, with hardly a hint of comedy to be found. Bill Paxton is fantastic as usual, and his direction is competent, if a little heavy-handed. The great strength of Frailty actually lies in its child star, Matt O'Leary, who is a fantastic talent and carries his character and much of the film amazingly well. A young Sumpter, who could recently be seen in the title role of Peter Pan, is also very good for his age.


The killings are geniunely terrifying, not because of any blood or gore, but because Meiks commits them right in front of his children, and forces them to watch. These scenes are gracefully and effectively handled, making up for any rough patches in the film.

Sadly, there are a few problems. Some of the dialouge is clunky and repititive, the plot can be very predictable, and McConaughey's acting leaves something to be desired. On first glance, you might also think that the third act 'twist' is extremely pathetic, and, as a twist, I suppose it is. But the quality of Frailty doesn't lie in its ability to surprise, rather its ability to stick in your mind for days after you've seen it. It is an unforgettable and deeply disturbing film, which only improves once you work out all the subtle details of its twisted plot. ****1/2 out of 5.

Hero

At its cinema release, Hero didn't interest me in the slightest, so I gave it a miss. But a friend of mine raved about it so much that, as soon as it came to DVD, I decided to check it out.

I've never been the biggest fan of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. First of all, it's dull. No point scurrying around it. The only parts of it that arouse any interest in me are the fight sequences, and even those, while visually impressive, feel pointless and without any emotional heart. Hero suffers from the same problems. The plot is weak, the characters are one-dimensional and any scene that doesn't involve a sword will have you nodding off in no time.

The action is, at first, quite amazing. The duels are exceptionally shot, and each have their own visual flair. Sadly, there's no disgusing that they're all - the - same. Li, Leung and Zhang, all capable of great performances, are given nothing to do with their characters, and Yimou handles the repititive nature of the script with disappointingly little adeptness. Only Maggie Cheung stands out among the cast, as always.

So, three stars for the sheer beauty of it all, and for the first two or three fight sequences. But ultimately, this was an extreme disappointment for me.

*** out of 5.