Tough Critter

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2014)

There are films you admire, films you abhor, films you despise, and films you love. You decide which of those this one is. This is the journey of a man who has a very unique way of looking at himself and others. His logic defies logical arguments, and you have to at least pay attention to the way he defends his actions and invalidates others' points of view.
Your first impression is to dismiss him as a loser who is most likely to end up messing up whatever or whoever he becomes involved with. because there's an air of recklessness to his enterprises. Once thing he does have is the ability to use whatever resource is needed to get one step closer to his goals, and ethics are not going to get on the way. He's an opportunist, and he will crawl into any type of gutter in order to reach the top or the bottom, whichever comes first. He's fearless.
He's introduced as a common thief, but he's a survivor, and eventually he finds himself working as a nightcrawler, a man who tries to get to the scene of the crime, of the accident, of the tragedy so he can shoot the most controversial and sensational footage, some striking visuals, and he's the man with the perfect eye, but that skill will only open doors, and now he appears to have found his niche because like some of those creatures of the night, he must be invited in, and then it's up to the others to survive his endless ambition.
He needs help, so he hires a really desperate character who puts up with his abuse while they search and find their way to some tragic scenes. He becomes more daring, and soon he finds himself breaking the law and getting lucky breaks of his own, as his competition also becomes part of one of the scenes he's looking for. Of course, our "hero" doesn't have a problem using that footage.
His luckiest break comes later when he confronts his source of income, and he realizes that he can also take advantage of some situations and the thirst for the type of material which drives the ratings. He gets to one of his scenarios before the law, and this is where he pushes every limit, putting himself in danger to get that exclusive footage that will gain him fame and recognition. What we don't realize at this moment is the extent of his plans, and when we see how h executes every step, we can't believe what we're seeing. He knows if he plays the cards right, he will find his way to the very top of this sometimes unethical mess.
It's unfair to reveal the last act of the film because this is where the suspense becomes oppressive because we just don't know how everything is going to turn out, and we don't know who to root for. It's messy and horrible Whether he will be able to survive is what we are waiting for. We may not be rooting for him, but we certainly watch, just like people stop along the freeway to catch a glimpse of the wreckage, like we turn our ears to the sound of the breaking news because we know it's not going to be a pretty picture, and that it really shouldn't be something we should be watching, but we still watch
Gyllenthal is certainly incredible in his performance here. He has given himself a haunting look, and it complements the way his soul is probably is just a rotting and dying entity because there's no way in this universe than a healthy human would be doing what he does, and that he survives and turns into something worse is something that we can't help but stare in wonder. He has captured that process beautifully, though we certainly don't want to be around him or upset him because by this part of the story there's no stopping his unending desire to succeed whether it's right or wrong.