A disturbing movie in the same vein as The Machinist

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2010)

This film was nothing like what I expected. I am still unsure whether I liked it or not. I did find it fairly disturbing and I can say that I have not been as genuinely disturbed by a film since The Machinist which nearly made me physically sick and messed me up for days - and I am a fan of horrors like Saw! I think De Caprio is a very talented actor. However the fact that he looks about 17 just makes it unbelievable when he is playing a role where he is supposed to have some kind of authority. It doesn't work for me. An example is where he has his top off next to his partner. Leo has the smooth body of a child he also has crappy tattoos that I just don't feel a US Marshall would have had in 1954! I also find Ben Kingsley to be a very one dimensional actor. Psycho one or psycho 2. He is good in this but I find it impossible to get the image of him as Don Logan in Sexy Beast out of my head. He seems to be the "dial a nutter"! We need a phsychopatic actor - phone SIR Ben and see if he is available. I find it hard to take him seriously.
Michelle Williams acts well in this and I found it quite poignant seeing what has happened in her personal life. There is just something too plain about her that i feel she has blagged her way into Hollywood and is not really a star.
The stand out performance for me was Mark Ruffalo. I have never seen his work before and he stole the show for me. I kept thinking it was Billy Zane and had to keep reminding myself that he is bald! The "twist" becomes so obvious that I was waiting for another one. Is that it I was thinking? Yes, the score was haunting but at times I felt it was too much.
I think Marty needs to get back to his gangster roots and make a modern day gangster flick using less obvious A list stars and sourcing his actors from some of the amazing TV shows like The Shield, The Sopranos and OZ.
Mark Ruffalo would make a perfect leading actor as he has that ambiguous "foreign" look about him.
All in all a disturbing, dark film that hits wide off the mark in my opinion.