The real deal

Rating: 10/10 (9 March 2009)

I saw this movie for the first time last night and was so surprised by its quality. For some reason, in my mind, I had always associated this film with No Country For Old Men, probably because they were released around the same time. Based on previews and some reviews I had read, I thought this was going to be the same hyper-violent artsy shock film. (I'm not trying to insult No Country, it was a great movie, but I stand by that evaluation.) I was so pleasantly surprised to see the unexpected- a completely beautiful, fascinating and honest movie. In fact, the lack of artsy pretension was what struck me most. The superb acting made it raw and believable. The characters avoid becoming caricatures, in spite of the intensity and extremes of their personas. So many aspects of the film were so obviously Kubrick-inspired that it did teeter on the verge of plagiarism at times, but the movie has enough of its own original merits that I wasn't overly put off by that. I'm not sure this movie got its fair shake. We heard so much hyperbole about films like American Beauty, Slumdog Millionaire, even Titanic (wow), and yet this one, in spite of winning some Academy Awards, seems at risk of slipping through the cracks in terms of its enduring legacy. I hope that doesn't happen, because it is truly great, and one for the ages.