I think the most important thing is to first off, commend Joe Anderson - an actor who deserves far more recognition than he has been given in his long standing career; Tully is the film's inordinate saving grace, and it is not thanks to any brilliant script writing or cinematography, he brought both vulnerability and unexpected humanity to a character that would otherwise have fallen flatly into the 'bad ex-con' category.
Tully, in the final scene, and in momentary glimpses throughout the film, provides the film with its emotional strength; you cannot look away from him - Anderson is pure pent-up energy, raw emotion.
Regrettably, the film does not take his character as far as it needed to - Supremacy is a thing of enormous potential, it could be extraordinary. But, it is not. Tully, in the end, only has a brief moment of redemptive vulnerability, the moments in between are not enough. There was potential within the frame of the script to accelerate further, to shake the moral boundaries - I was hoping not to see another 'and then the bad guys get punished, the end' - I wanted this film to make me question what makes a person bad, if that exists at all, I wanted to feel more for Tully.
That's not to say that Joe Anderson is not sympathetic in the role. But I'm uncertain how much of that was his strength as an actor, versus the filmmaker's intention - I'm guessing that it's pretty much all on Joe.
The ending ought to have been left, at the very least, ambiguous. For a character to alter, and then be given the death penalty regardless - off screen, as a footnote - erases the work of the actor and the filmmaker; in the end, he is punished, karma/the law happens etc. Yes, it's based on a true story, but it's still a narrative film - that's no excuse. The ending diminishes Anderson's strikingly childlike performance in the last scene - he takes the thunder from Glover altogether, we care about Tully (or would, if the character arc had been more pronounced), ending it on a footnote is lazy script writing.
To conclude, I did enjoy the film, it was well made, there were moments when the cinematography was lovely to look at. I wish that they had hired another writer, however, because the potential of the film was probably greater than the film itself.
Tully, in the final scene, and in momentary glimpses throughout the film, provides the film with its emotional strength; you cannot look away from him - Anderson is pure pent-up energy, raw emotion.
Regrettably, the film does not take his character as far as it needed to - Supremacy is a thing of enormous potential, it could be extraordinary. But, it is not. Tully, in the end, only has a brief moment of redemptive vulnerability, the moments in between are not enough. There was potential within the frame of the script to accelerate further, to shake the moral boundaries - I was hoping not to see another 'and then the bad guys get punished, the end' - I wanted this film to make me question what makes a person bad, if that exists at all, I wanted to feel more for Tully.
That's not to say that Joe Anderson is not sympathetic in the role. But I'm uncertain how much of that was his strength as an actor, versus the filmmaker's intention - I'm guessing that it's pretty much all on Joe.
The ending ought to have been left, at the very least, ambiguous. For a character to alter, and then be given the death penalty regardless - off screen, as a footnote - erases the work of the actor and the filmmaker; in the end, he is punished, karma/the law happens etc. Yes, it's based on a true story, but it's still a narrative film - that's no excuse. The ending diminishes Anderson's strikingly childlike performance in the last scene - he takes the thunder from Glover altogether, we care about Tully (or would, if the character arc had been more pronounced), ending it on a footnote is lazy script writing.
To conclude, I did enjoy the film, it was well made, there were moments when the cinematography was lovely to look at. I wish that they had hired another writer, however, because the potential of the film was probably greater than the film itself.