Purging Rationality

Rating: 4/10 (12 October 2013)

The new founding fathers of a dystopian Unites States of America have reconstructed the country into a controlled society, which lets out all its rage, frustration and mischief on one deadly night. For 12 hours each year the Purge takes place: a free-for-all no-rules-apply vent for the angry masses, where they can rape, pillage and even murder with no remorse, while the police, firemen and emergency rescue facilities are closed. This is supposed to cleanse the society and thus guarantee a harmonious continuity of the system.
James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) reaps the profit from the Purge installing security systems for the rich and well-off, while the poor, helpless and homeless bear the full wrath of societal scorn, letting their blood to fertilise this renewed America. Together with his wife Mary (Lena Headey), son Charlie (Max Burkholder) and daughter Zooey (Adelaide Kane) they prepare for the Purge readying for house lock-down. However inadvertently the compassionate young Charlie decides to save a homeless stranger (Edwin Hodge) from being bloodied out by murderous mobs. This in turn brings the whole family at risk as a gang of youthful snobs led by Polite Leader (Rhys Wakefield) intend to discard of the waste by any means necessary.
"The Purge" is ruled by the gimmick, and much like with movies such as the cult "Battle Royale" the rationality of the whole concept is glossed over. Once the stage is set you shouldn't really enquire into the likelihood of the whole premise, accept it and try to venture into the places it takes. Nonetheless James DeManaco's surprise hit stumbles into the story with such a heavy-handed low-brow approach to social commentary, that you find yourself observing the punctured holes leaking drudge onto the story.
For one thing as much as humans are prone to vent up frustration, but the concept that once every year people would en masse turn into mindless psychopaths is a bit far-fetched (although feasible given the state condones this as a necessity). Nonetheless above all humans are motivated by greed, not spite and pointless violence, so truth to the matter would be that mobs first and foremost would utilise the Purge not to cover the streets with blood, but to advance their monetary standing - hence robberies, arson and various other crimes would dominate above all. Glaringly contradictory to human nature it comes somewhat of a laugh, when the motivation behind the introduction of the Purge is the supposed unstoppable rampant crime on American streets, which - lets face facts - isn't anywhere near the boiling point of the 1970s. But enough premise bashing...
And enter plot-hole bickering. The hugest issue with story lays in the irregularities to logic that litter the script, the main issue lying with the forms of protection utilised by the fabulously wealthy residing in Sandin's cut-off community. When the houses enter into lock-down the immediate question hits with glaring obviousness: I understand that turning your house into a impenetrable steel-enforced fortress may be a decent first line of defence, but honestly - whatever happened to the age-old panic room? Other faults are less striking, mostly minuscule issues, but this one just immediately throws you out a viewer of the presented reality into the guise of the cynic critic.
Overly meticulous? Should just let it go? Possibly, but still the ultimate tension and narrative fail to entice, as what starts of as an intriguing concept quickly steers away from an attempt to present and evaluate the dichotomous society and flings us straight into another generic home invasion movie with some laboriously attached social critique taped on. When the story fails to evolve away from the baseline obvious and the tension never builds up to anything worth anything other than a snore, a few twists are introduced to liven up proceedings with the subtlety of an ox (with some atrocious acting to self-destruct the pay-off all the more successfully). Surprisingly, despite the family being locked up in the house for most of the runtime of the movie we fail even to get a feel of the Sandins, almost faceless protagonists despite the presence of Ethan Hawke (who unfortunately delivers a plastic performance).
Not recommended. But still a workable premise to work off of could garner a much better sequel.