Tom Stall, son of Arathorn, lives a quiet peaceful life in a quiet peaceful town where things are so dull that his daughter's nightmare is enough to get everyone out of bed and the most thrilling event of the day is a gym class baseball game. He runs a slow, mostly empty diner, and is well liked. His son is a terrible wuss and his wife (lawyer) is the breadwinner which seems to suit him just fine.
If you've seen the trailers, then you know two bad dudes blow in one night and start trouble at the diner. We know from a previous scene that they don't just intend to rob the diner, but they're likely to kill everyone as well. Fortunely, quiet, spineless Tom isn't so spineless and he becomes a CNN Story of the Week when he saves the diner's patrons from the two serial killers. Unfortunately, Ed Harris watches CNN with his one good eye and thinks he knows Tom. That's where the story really begins.
Things don't go the way in this movie that you usually think they should in a movie. If you read the casting, and have any sense at all, you know that Tom Stall is not just Tom Stall, but despite that knowledge, when he lies Mortensen really sells you those lies. The violence isn't action-movie violence and it's not graphic for the sake of being graphic. It's not forced in anyway and it feels like just a natural progression of the events that unfold.
In some ways, the film almost mocks the violence of other movies. When Ed Harris asks Tom's wife "Why do you think Tom is so good at killing people?" it's a question people don't normally ask themselves in movies. We just accept that the hero can shoot a bad guy four times in the chest, that he can block a punch and knock a guy out in a hit or two. There's even a great scene where one of William Hurt's goons fails what should be an obvious attempt to kill a guy. We know the goon failed because he's a goon and they never succeed, but William Hurt points out "How do you fuck that up? HOW? It's so unbelievably simple."
The overall moral here is that violence opens the door for more violence and it's not a door that's easily closed.
As with most good movies, the conclusion left most of the audience dissatisfied, but interested.
I'm not a Serenity/Firefly fan and I personally don't like Joss Whedon's stuff so far. So for me, this is definately the movie in theaters you ought to see right now. Father McKenzie fucked around with this message on 09-30-2005 at 04:30 PM.
quote:
Father McKenzie had this to say about Captain Planet:
Tom Stall, son of Arathorn
I lol'd
quote:
JooJooFlop probably says this to all the girls:
I'm gonna see the movie just because Viggo Mortensen gave such an awesome interview on The Daily Show.
That was a pretty awesome interview...
Elijah Wood's part in Sin City was minor but kind of neat, but if you want to see him do really well as an actor, you should see Green Street Hooligans. Such an unlikely movie that turns out so awesome and involving. I can't believe that this didn't get picked up for a major theater release by someone. Very disappointing because it is a spectacular film.
Of course, then Eomer (Karl Urban) has to go and star in Doom.
