Django: a mixed review

Rating: 6/10 (25 November 2013)

Director Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is certainly the most original story, set before the American Civil War and the emancipation proclamation (1863) that freed the slaves, about two unlikely bounty hunters, Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz) and former Django (Jamie Foxx), who spend the entire film hunting down and killing white southerners who broke the law. Yet this film's strengths are matched by its weaknesses, leading to only a marginal thumbs up for me.
The strength of the film is partly in Christopher Waltz's delicious performance as Schultz who deftly combines great civility with truly sociopathic behaviour. In retrospect, it is a shame that we did not get to see more of Waltz and less of Foxx in this picture. Leonardo DiCaprio also delivers a brilliant over the top (but regrettably short) performance as the villain slave owner, Calvin Candie. There is a certain irony in the fact that Candie calls his estate, "Candyland," given how horribly the slaves in particular are treated there. DiCaprio, who is obviously a gifted actor when given rich parts, creates a character that is flamboyant, unapologetically sadistic, and displays incredible energy. He is a marvel to watch. Beyond that, director Quentin Tarantino also should be credited for making a film that, in the first hour or so, has a sense of humour about the farcical situations that its characters are in while, at the same time, using graphic violence to illustrate the savage racism of the ante bellum South. Doing both those things at once without appearing in bad taste is something of an accomplishment.
Yet this film has significant weaknesses as well and its third and final act in particular was a disappointment to me. To begin with, Jamie Foxx is actually quite boring as the main character Django, which would not be so much of a problem except that the whole film is about him. Far from doing anything interesting with this role, Foxx can only regurgitate his slick, charismatic performance from films, like "Stealth." So when the camera is just on Waltz or DiCaprio, I did not really miss Foxx. Another problem was Kerry Washington's performance as Django's "wife," which has to go down as one of the dullest performances of a love interest in the movies. Finally the other major flaw in "Django" is that its plot, especially towards the end, becomes too farcical and too absurd. The film's third act plays like an exploitation film, using very graphic violence and bloodletting to entertain rather than to underline the savagery of racism and slavery. One wonders whether Tarantino lost his inspiration by the time he completed two-thirds of the script and simply tacked on an ending that exemplified the tired and worn out formulas for other action pictures that use graphic violence to jolt the audience.