Everything Must Go ****

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Posted: 16/10/2011

One of the most moving performances sometimes is when a comedic actor plays it straight. Will Ferrell does so in Dan Rush’s Everything Must Go, a thoughtful and realistically crafted and paced piece of touching drama with subtle additions of humour.

Ferrell plays Nick Halsey, an executive salesman and alcoholic who loses his job, his wife and his home after relapsing. After being told he is fired, Nick returns home to find he is locked out, his wife’s not answering and his possessions are all over the front lawn. Nick begins to pick up the pieces, with a little help from a smart local kid (Kenny, played by Christopher C.J. Wallace) and a new lonely neighbour called Samantha (Rebecca Hall).

Everything Must Go primarily takes place in one setting, like a stage play, with characters pondering over their lot and working out their issues in a heart-warming fashion. Rush’s film thankfully doesn’t try to right the wrongs of one flawed individual with an addiction over the course of a few days, but still allows a sense of hope to shine through, as we see Nick set on the road to self-recovery.

Ferrell is far more impressive in a straighter role, like his turn in Stranger Than Fiction, as he controls his own brand of zaniness and channels it as bittersweet irony and humour into ordinary events happening to Nick, hence engaging deeper with his audience for doing so. Ferrell keeps Nick grounded and real, making him hateful most of the time – as the illness sadly inflicts, but still human, as we empathise with his situation and grow fond of him when he reaches out for help.

The ever-changing balance of like-hate is an intriguing one as Nick interacts with two of life’s other ‘losers’, Kenny and Samantha. The dynamics with each and the role reversal of victim-survivour at any given moment are what maintain the interest in this poignant drama throughout, even if it feels lagging and inflated at times – possibly due to it being based on a short story by Raymond Carver.

Michael Peña is also against type in this as sympathetic cop Frank Garcia, Nick’s former sponsor and friend. Peña as Frank is wonderfully understated and affecting in this as someone trying to reach out to Nick, but someone hiding a secret. The surprises are the Ferrell and Peña performances that make for a refreshing change from both.

This is an unhurried and low-key character-centric drama laced with occasional humour and subtle intensity, allowing the actors to deliver some of their finest moments of their craft on screen, especially Ferrell, for which it will be remembered solely for.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Midnight In Paris ****

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Posted: 06/10/2011

SPOILER: As a Brit watching Woody Allen’s latest European muse, the first thing that springs to mind is Only Fools’ Nicholas Lyndhurst’s time-travelling sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart about an accidental time traveller who discovers a time portal, allowing him to travel between the London of the 1990s and the same area during the Second World War. Time travel captures the imagination and has fascinated audiences, from Back to the Future to Quantum Leap. For this reason alone, Allen’s new romantic comedy, Midnight In Paris, has an instant awe – and not just as a result of the setting being the upmarket parts and cultural haunts of gay Paris.

An American family travel to Paris on business, but the engaged couple of the party, Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams), find the culture and lifestyle starting to interfere with real life, and they are forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better.

Midnight In Paris is by far one of the best Allen films out for a couple of years. The film-maker has dabbled in other major cities around the world, such as Barcelona and London, with little charm or lasting impression. What Allen taps into in this is the natural mystique of Paris. Hence the rest of the tale feels more magical.

The charming trademark neurosis of Allen’s characters is back in full force – his 2010 film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, was just too self-absorbed and self-commiserating to allow audiences to really care for the characters they were watching. In this, Wilson is an absolute delight in one of his best roles for years as troubled writer Gil, who pines for past creative eras because he longs for a creative eureka moment. His ‘episodes’ with literary, artistic and film-making historical legends is incredibly quaint and light-hearted, and stirs a nostalgic passion we all sometimes feel of a better life lived that is now past.

Wilson is particularly apt at playing the wide-eyed innocent in his films, characters full of flaws and self-depreciation, that when he shares the company of the likes of Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) in this, it’s the same wonderful thrill you get watching an overly appreciative kid in a candy store, brimming with newfound confidence. In addition, fans of these great minds will revel in their quotes and references. It’s a gloriously amusing cultural jaunt, and although a lot of the episodes are brief, the snapshot moment is all it takes to beguile you.

McAdams is fresh and energetic as Inez and as stunning as Marion Cotillard as Gil’s yesteryear love, Adriana. Again, the sumptuous set design is as intoxicating as the location, showing all involved off in the very best light, and implying that Allen is in love once again with his characters. Cotillard simply illuminates the screen like a sliver-screen legend in her heyday, captivating both admirer Gil and the audience. Back in the present, Michael Sheen as know-it-all Paul, one half of a couple who befriend Gil and Inez, is absolutely hilarious and a sheer, conceited tonic to watch as he talks his way around the cultural city with all in tow. Even France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni, makes an appearance to add to the film’s radiance.

Midnight In Paris is like a soothing, retrospective project for Allen, his very own journey to recapturing creative inspiration and fantasy, as he rekindles his character love affair that made him such a satisfying film-maker a couple of decades ago, and brought out the very best performances in his cast – as it does here. Although it suffers from a sobering moment of moralistic self-righteousness about ‘living in the present’ to be more fulfilled, Midnight In Paris is an effervescent, witty and absorbing tale lost in time.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Tyrannosaur *****

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Posted: 06/10/2011

Paddy Considine’s first feature film’s subject of domestic violence was never going to be an easy film to watch. But what was unexpected is how powerful a debut Tyrannosaur truly is. It’s almost cathartic in nature and raises questions about the writer-director’s own experiences.

Self-destructive widower Joseph (Peter Mullan) comes across charity shop worker Hannah (Olivia Colman) one day while trying to hide from the consequences of his violent actions. What stems from this first awkward meeting between this working-class man and middle-class woman is a desperate bond of help, especially as Hannah is looking for a way out of her abusive marriage to James (Eddie Marsan).

Like a self-inflicted open wound, Considine keeps things red raw and festering as a painful reminder of the ugly, destructive and secretive side of human nature. The biggest shock is not necessarily the violence – implied or otherwise – in this film, but the blossoming moments of hope that rear their heads. Without these, the dramatic impact of the lull before the storm would never be as greatly or as sinisterly felt.

Considine has harvested some truly unforgettable and quite outstanding performances from Mullan and Colman that will haunt you like no other grit-Brit flick in a very, very long time. The biggest surprise is Peep Show’s comedic actress Colman in such an against-type role. She still exudes that subliminal vulnerability but outer determination in this, but her foray into straight acting couldn’t be more brave and compassionate. She deserves as many award nominations as she can get for going through shooting such harrowing scenes that include domestic rape.

Mullan draws on his arsenal of nasty characteristics in this, gleamed from other gritty roles. However, like Colman’s against-type role, we get to see a softer side in this, almost an old-fashioned if twisted principled man beneath the racist and psychotic episodes. It’s the unpredictability of his character that keeps us on edge throughout, wondering whether the fuse will be lit at any one moment. However, overall, Considine’s characters are never one-dimensional, and are ever changing that the near-end twist will not surprise but will disappoint the healing process that these two leads strive for.

Marsan is another actor drawn to playing a warped mind, and his faceless entrance in this film is enough for us to despise James from the start and paints the bigger picture, without one word uttered. Considine never allows James to redeem himself, keeping him the cowardly monster that he is. Considine depicts every abusive mind game in the book in one of the most realistic and damming portrayals seen in a film in a long time that often does not involve physical actions, but is disturbingly sinister all the same.

Considine has produced an outstandingly stark and brutally authentic look at abuse that offers no conceited, moralistic high grounds, flimsy solutions or ‘happily-ever-after’ moments. It simply plays out the actions and reactions and lets the viewer decide on their take of events. Tyrannosaur will transport you to a darker place in the soul for a while but saves you with sporadic moments of joy that keeps it from becoming too self-absorbed and pretentious.

5/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Perfect Sense ***

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Posted: 06/10/2011

Imagine losing your senses, one by one – a too terrifying prospect to contemplate. David Mackenzie’s new drama Perfect Sense plunges you into that nightmare, but suggests that the greatest sense of all, the sense of love, will prevail when everything else shuts down.

Set in an alternative Glasgow, chef Michael (Ewan McGregor) falls for a scientist called Susan (Eva Green) who lives opposite his restaurant. After some games and insecurities are played out, the pair eventually falls in love, just as the world epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions. The question is, can love prevail when all else fails?

Although flawed in conceptual parts and over indulgent and contrived in some emotional scenarios – bordering on the pretentious, Perfect Sense is a rather odd coupling of romance and art-house sci-fi that’s acutely visceral and profoundly thought provoking, purely in its main idea of losing our senses. It features restaurant scenes that mirror performance art and capture the decadence of those in The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover or the Dutch Golden Age of art, all giving a carnal slant to events as the animal survival instincts kick in and the civilised ones depart. These are some of the most exciting scenes to watch, like a burst of life in an otherwise intense bodily exploration between two lovers.

The film’s curiosity is the not only the highly surreal pairing of McGregor and Green, but also breaking through its depressingly apocalyptic nature is an intriguingly optimistic resilience, ignited by the power of love. It’s more apocalyptic romance than sci-fi fantasy tinged with rampant emotions. McGregor and Green have some chemistry, but not as much as such a story requires – though Green is ever engaging, outshining McGregor’s efforts in the film.

Another peculiarity comes with the inclusion of grainy, news-like ‘documented’ events of spreading desperation across India and around the world to give the pseudo-news-style element and wider global issue angle to the film, as well as an authentic edge. However, these clips sit rather uneasily beside the tone of the majority of the film, and feel like ‘add ins’ from another, making them redundant to the nice claustrophobic development of localised struggles that are reminiscent of such British films as 28 Days Later….

It is an intriguing idea to marry a turbulent love story with a disaster movie, but without a strong and convincing couple at the fore to begin with, Perfect Sense leaves both the relationship and apocalyptic parts woefully under-developed and lacking the explosive impact from either that is required. Although watchable, the only thing that succeeds is Mackenzie triggering our deepest, darkest fears of complete sensory malfunction, the premise of which would make another more terrifying film, if this were the focus. Perhaps then they could address why the sense of touch survived unscathed?

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE

Johnny English Reborn ****

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Posted: 06/10/2011

Cynics might be too quick to mock the news of another Johnny English film. But Johnny English Reborn is one example of a sequel that knocks spots off the original, which admittedly wasn’t hard, purely because those involved have had eight years to mull over the mistakes made in the first to now offer a better plot, script and visual gags.

This time, Johnny English, played by comedy hero Rowan Atkinson, goes up against international assassins set on taking down the Chinese premier. However, the real danger may be lurking closer to home…

Atkinson plays a more mature English in this, more suave, sexier and closer to the bumbling Bond persona the original film-makers attempted to capture, rather than Mr Bean in a penguin suit playing silly spy games. As far back as Clouseau, we all love an earnest fool out of control who strives to do the right thing. English appeals with his sense of loyalty, his values and his sporadic playfulness that shine through his flaws, making it easy to root for him until the bitter end.

Atkinson naturally uses the facial tools of his trade, tapping into Blackadder and Bean characteristics for fans, but never veering too far in either direction. He doesn’t portray English as a complete and utter fool, like a Frank Drebin character from Naked Gun, so unbelievable as an active agent that the rest of the plot feels totally ridiculous – as in the first English film. Atkinson brilliantly plays English as straight as a die, with the surrounding fallout being the hilarity, like any good comedic character worth his weight. However, the slapstick set pieces remain the main bread and butter of this type of comedy but are far better timed and carried out, even if their punchlines can be seen coming from the other side of the universe.

Director Oliver Parker also has an array of new spy-superhero films like the Bourne and latter-day Batman and Bond sagas to reference, and a big factor of the enjoyment in Reborn is seeing how these film nods are played out in the incredible world of English, and more importantly, tailored for family audience tastes. The baddies seem more authentic, too, and the addition of a bigger budget means more action and drama added to the standard comedy farce affair.

Reborn has secured an exciting new cast of Gillian Anderson, Dominic West and Rosamund Pike, all surprising to see involved, given the previous film’s mixed reception, but all injecting their individual charisma to make their MI7 characters more credible, while upping the style stakes. Their presence also changes the nature of this sequel, compared to the first film full of panto performances, in addition to the new action-thriller source material that the writers have tapped into.

Aside from the A-list attraction and action sequences – many of which are glimpsed in the trailer, no Bond spoof would be complete without the gadgets, of which there are plenty and supplied by Q character Patch Quartermain, played by Blackadder colleague Tim McInnerny. This is another thrill for fans of the iconic TV sitcom that reunites Atkinson and McInnerny on screen together after eighteen years.

As with the old faces, comes the new, with The Fades actor Daniel Kaluuya as English’s weary right-hand man, Agent Tucker, who nicely compliments Atkinson in many of their scenes together, doing an apt job of portraying our reactions to unravelling events.

Unlike English’s impending catastrophes, Johnny English Reborn is no accident waiting to happen, rather a well-executed, well-written sequel with a lot more spice and action to it – cue the metaphorical ‘job-well-done’ scene in the end credits. In short, it’s pure English buffoonery executed by Atkinson on a bit of a film career revival, and an absolute giggle a minute.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE

Melancholia ****

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Posted: 29/09/2011

Controversial film-maker Lars von Trier’s time at Cannes this year will be remembered for all the wrong reasons when his work should have got the lion’s share of the attention – especially as Melancholia is by far the better film than Palme d’Or winner, Malick’s The Tree Of Life. Much to von Trier’s distaste, this film is far more mainstream and commercial than his previous work, Antichrist, which makes it more accommodating to a wider audience, but perhaps equally contentious in other ways.

Set in two parts, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) is a depressive who believes a castle fairy-tale wedding is what she longs for and will make her ‘normal’ and fit into society’s expectations. When it all goes horribly wrong, her older sister, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is left to pick up the pieces in the second half. However, their world has a greater looming and impending danger that could bring an end to everything they know.

From the elevated Wagner crescendo opening of disturbing but breathtaking imagery, Melancholia is a strangely hypnotic and beautifully imagined ode to human suffering that feels burdensome with the impending planetary doom casting an even greater dark cloud. Depression is von Trier’s muse and his film is so peculiar and depictive of the illness that it all together drains and pulls – much like watching a car crash of biblical proportions.

The original idea came to von Trier after speaking to Penélope Cruz who loved French dramatist Jean Genet’s The Maids about two maids who kill their mistress. Substituting Cruz for Dunst (due to work commitments), and the maids for two very different sisters, this engrossing tale grapples with the idea of normality and everyday reality and ritual being so trivial and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, highlighted by the sisters finding some sort of perverted euphoria at the end to their suffering when the daily decisions are taken out of their hands.

Dunst who suffered from depression in real-life brings tragic warmth and a damaged spirit to her role of Justine, switching from playful and fun-loving one minute to glazed and lethargic the next with alarming ease. Hers is perhaps the closest illustration to the debilitating illness that cinema has ever witnessed, without trivialising it. A huge sense of melancholy fills each scene when Justine is present, resulting in some highly unsettling viewing. Her character transforms in the latter half, finding a raw inner strength that Justine has been searching for.

Gainsbourg as Claire is excellent, the ‘together’ and mentally stable matriarchal figure by scientist husband John’s (Kiefer Sutherland) side. Von Trier forever toys with his characters’ presumed contentment, more so with Claire who has the greatest to lose and therefore, rapidly descends faster than her younger sibling into her own kind of hell. It’s this yin-and-yang marriage of the sibling personalities that makes the sisters’ collective plight so alluring and robust.

Another reason to simply wonder at von Trier’s latest cinematic epic is the extraordinary imagery, from the slo-mo Dali-esque beginnings to the Delaroche/Waterhouse Pre-Raphaelite reproductions that hold a stunning, often naked Dunst in the fore. Melancholia may be about depression and human futility in the universe, but far from it being visually gloomy at times with its frenetic hand-held camerawork at the wedding, it romanticises every other aspect. We dip in and out of a colour-rich fantasy with stark contrast. One such example is the planet, Melancholia’s scenes that are awe-inspiring one minute with their illuminating blue wash over the golf course, to frighteningly ferocious the next with a nauseating hum forever present that adds to the doomsday dramatics. It is a totally challenging and absorbing experience.

Von Trier said he didn’t like his film. Some will have an immediate hate-hate relationship with it, possibly due to its art-house feel or a greater fear of the topics it tackles. Others will be left simply emotionally breathless. Either way, the master has unleashed another testing masterpiece that will draw out deep-seated anxieties and discussions for all.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE

 

Red State ***

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Posted: 29/09/2011

“Establishment is flawed. Down with the establishment!” appears to be Kevin Smith‘s defining and sinister mantra in his Tarantino-esque Red State, done with brutal and twisted irony in a hail of righteous bullets. Its cynicism both cultivates and dissipates the bouts of humour in one of Smith’s most radical yet frank pieces of film-making yet that throws out a collection of controversial ideas.

Set in Middle America, three teenage boys receive an online invitation for sex with an older woman. But they soon encounter religious fundamentalists headed by disciplinarian Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) with a far more sinister agenda, as well as the law enforcement’s attempt at controlling their ideas.

Smith said audiences would ‘tremble in fear’. That’s not to say Red State is in anyway terrifying or differs from other shoot-em-up offerings. It’s the fear for mankind’s self-destructive mode that’s the greatest implied terror here, and the true horror of the whole affair. The idea that a set of beliefs or our own selfish desires can lead to events radically spiralling out of control is a weighty issue that Smith dwells on, and is highly topical in today’s terrorism-obsessed culture.

Red State is both a damning testament to those who fear God to the extreme, but also holds them a little in awe at their defiant nature in rejecting life’s temptations and societal rules. Smith doesn’t appear to come down in favour of either the believers’ or non-believers’ camp as such, showing the human flaws of all involved, and resulting in some chilling battle scenes where children are also expendable. The only pause for thought from all the ugliness comes with a presumed interjection from the Almighty that is both eerie and quietly amusing, but leaves both players and the audience utterly perplexed for a split second to allow the dust to settle.

Smith employs a wealth of talent in Parks, Melissa Leo and John Goodman, but the most striking performance is Parks as religious zealot Cooper who is hell-bent on exterminating life’s ‘diseased’ areas – pornography, homosexuality etc. You only have to listen to his gravely, menacing tones on the trailer to appreciate the impact Cooper has on the film’s tone and direction, and Parks’ charismatic but maniacal portrayal chills to the bone, more because of the reality of many Coopers nestled in the deepest, darkest recesses of the US of A and beyond.

Red State starts out like any horny coming-of-age flick full of hidden promise, but the end is nigh and comes too soon before any meaningful conclusions to be had – apart from the rebellious first line of this review. Cooper aside, who has some albeit perverse purpose, we are given very little scope to build any valuable empathy with the other characters, before they meet their maker. As cold-blooded as the killing is, this resonates with the soul of the film, often leaving you questioning Smith’s motives and character treatment altogether.

Unlike Tarantino’s iconic and colourful characters in his notorious crime sprees like Pulp Fiction, it’s best to take Smith’s rather alarming but watchable Red State as an inky-black satire of such God-fearing stand-offs, with the issues not the characters leaving the greater impression after the last bullet is spent.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE

 

The Debt ****

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Posted: 29/09/2011

The role of retired Mossad secret agent Rachel Singer in John Madden’s new espionage thriller, The Debt, is a highly fitting one for the immense on-screen talent, presence and investigative skills of actress Helen Mirren, no stranger to weeding out corrupt elements of society in her stint as TV’s Supt. Jane Tennison. But those banking on seeing Mirren recapturing her glory days will have to contend with her playing a rather enigmatic, if fickle character in this, and sharing screen time – and the younger version of Rachel – with exciting rising star Jessica Chastain.

Beginning in 1997, retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Mirren) and Stefan (Tom Wilkinson) hear shocking news about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington) tracked down and captured Nazi war criminal Vogel (Jesper Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk and considerable personal cost, the team’s mission was accomplished – or was it?

Madden’s film adopts the non-linear trajectory of bringing us up to speed on past and present events, without over-complicating or confusing matters and affecting the simmering tension this thriller enjoys brewing. In fact, Madden’s story is actually set in the 60s rather than in present day, with Chastain deserving much of the credit for keeping Rachel interesting and sympathetic, but not without giving the final curtain bow to Mirren in a taut and nail-biting end stand-off.

Given general knowledge about events in Nazi concentration camps, the story has its ready-made motive. Each of the agents is tackling a personal loss that intriguingly plays havoc with their deadly mission. However, the more daring side that Madden does not really touch on is the political one of Mossad’s twilight ops. This would be a whole other film altogether, like Munich, when The Debt is really about a powerful love triangle between three people sent to do a dangerous job while leaning on each other for support.

Chastain, Csokas and Worthington make for an appealing dynamic, with three very different character personalities at play at any one time, all switching off when duty requires. It’s the slow deconstruction of their stoic façade by uncontrollable human emotions that gives added depth to an otherwise post-war romantic drama. The women in the film are tougher than usual, too. Chastain as Rachel is the catalyst for many events happening in the film, and does a magnificent job of tying in her accent and responses with those of Mirren who picks up the baton on the failed mission later on. The only niggling point is the changing facial features of all the six protagonists, with Hinds more believable looking as an older Stefan than a mature David.

Still, the defining moment of the film is seeing Mirren in a ‘battle of the OAPs’ at the very end, proving choreographed action scenes are not just the premise of the younger actor, as she pays the price to combat pure evil. The elation at seeing Mirren perform counterbalances the previous lies told by a reticent Rachel, and the story comes full circle in a reflective and poetic finale of resolution.

Madden’s tragic love story set within the thriller sphere plays to all his cast’s strengths by triggering character emotions in situations of fear – even those of the often wooden Worthington as a young David. The Debt also redefines the nostalgic 40s/50s spy thrillers of a by-gone era for a contemporary audience, substituting gritty realism for the glamour, and making things more plausible. In fact, Madden’s The Debt is a diligent fait accompli of the original Israel version, Ha-Hov, by avoiding poking at political hornet’s nest.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE    

The Woman ****

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Posted: 29/09/2011

Lucky McKee’s new horror The Woman is 2011’s very own I Spit on Your Grave for fuelling post-viewing debate and controversy. It is a love-hate piece of film-making designed to revolt, but also to allow us to reflect. To describe it as a “look into the darkness of human nature” gives it a purpose and an excuse for exercising some of the most raw and depraved acts seen in a long time. What it does deliver though is the much desired shock tactic, just when the genre feels like it has little else to stoop to and horrify us with.

Controlling family man Chris discovers a feral woman living wild in the woods and decides to capture her and civilise her ways with the help of his long-suffering family. Holding her prisoner in his home grounds, Chris finds the task more difficult than first thought, and his family’s fascination and well-intentioned compassion soon turns to sadistic cruelty.

McKee uses the feral nature of the Woman, defiantly played by Pollyanna McIntosh, as a mirror to reflect our own deepest, darkest instincts, which we keep intact through our belief in a legal system and our ingrained civilities that separate us from animals. What’s terrifying to witness in this film is how Chris, a lawyer, and others in authority like him, become so consumed with power that it corrupts them and their judgment. McKee’s story is an extreme analysis of this, and it’s said that abusive people start with cruelty to animals – the animal in this case is a human. The cruellest living mammal is human, too, it seems.

The subjects of rape, incest, brutality, domestic violence and murder are all dealt with, without much compromise or redemption. McKee aims to paint the disturbing truth of our psyche, and even has a slight dig at America’s religious bigotry – another man-appointed belief system designed to contain us. Chris uses the excuse of God to justify his actions – like a latter-day Crusader. Sean Bridgers is repulsively apt in the role, never allowing us to empathise with Chris, even at the start. His son, Brian (Zach Rand), copies his father, and these scenes are horrifying alone, but with a lot of youngsters being conditioned in war-torn areas around the world, his actions are never acceptable, but are better understood.

However, it is McKee’s female characters that strike the biggest punch and raise the greatest controversy. Whether they are powerless at first like Chris’s whimpering wife figure, Belle (Angela Bettis), McKee has set their fate without much room for improvement. Therefore, our initial sympathy ebbs away, whether intentional or not. Those who are tainted remain so, and there’s only one female who triumphs in the end, but she suffers for her defining moment. Revenge on the male captors also doesn’t feel adequate enough, considering their actions, and leaves you feeling wholly unsatisfied and without full justice served. Hence, the parallels McKee depicts to the animal kingdom are striking in this film, with the weak paying the price: It’s like watching a human nature study at times, once you get past the appalling violence – some shown, some not to fuel your imagination.

McKee not only succeeds in taking us to the most depraved depths of the human soul but also makes no apologies as the context is any one of us can relate at a certain level, anyone who has ever harboured an unnatural or barbaric thought. It’s this trigger of unease, coupled with the film’s bloody actions that make The Woman one of the most affective and most intense horrors seen in recently.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE