Clumsy Term Paper

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2002)

Spoilers herein.
I found Ed Norton to be a plausible foil in `Fight Club,' but a simple mugger in `The Score.' I sought this out to discover whether he should be on a list to watch or not -- this being a picture he influenced heavily.
It is a mess. It is a mess because the director was too callow to have and impose a vision. So we get lots of different visions depending on the composition of the moment and the elements involved. One of those elements is Norton himself. I continue to maintain that the actor should never be in charge of the vision: he just has an entirely different set of concerns. One can see the scenes that Norton rips away from the director and sets up as billboards for himself.
There are times when this can work. Scorsese seems to have explored more than all of them. It doesn't work here. This material demands that it be centered in large numbers of `ordinary' people. The impact is that this could be widespread, not just isolated to one movieland character. But Norton sucks all the attention out of the story.
The material demands ambiguity. But the center is an unwaveringly decent black schoolteacher, as artificial a character as Norton's.
The material attempts some sort of reflection through the term paper/diary reflections of the brother. But this is clumsily written and ends up as simple narration, usually the sign of poor visual storytelling.
There is self-reference of sorts between Norton and his character. The character is playing a role that allows for one-dimensional excess. This role is widely respected because of the matter he preaches. So too with Norton himself.