This is a tremendous movie that succeeds on every level: a who dunnit (and how dunnit) murder mystery; a hall of mirrors where one is never sure who is pulling the levers; an excellent study of the changing mentor/student relationship of writer Winslet and her smartest and oldest intern in the world as they are slammed by gut-wrenching body blows; a gripping countdown to a REAL deadline; and a devastating indictment of the death penalty. Every part is perfectly cast and acted and should (if this is considered a 2003 movie), garner 1-2 of the top 4 Oscars. Spacey is masterful, a clever doleful shattered puppet master, Linney is luminous- always pushing on the edges of her own self-confinement, Winslet is superb as the tart jealous reporter who affects great cynicism but earnestly wants a great noble cause (trust me on this- journalists have no colleagues, only competitors); and Parker masterfully spins all these elements together in a tornado of tension that reaches it's crescendo only at the end.
This is a movie that will wound you, and trouble you; that will (like `Jacob's Ladder') make you grab anybody coming out the theater to argue what it meant, what they knew, what you think. The real Austin and Huntsville prison, Texas locations and local casting help the movie ring true- in almost every way- and the cloudy and rainy photography build the atmosphere of impending doom. It isn't an overtly preachy movie- the audience is left to make up their own mind and must connect the dots on a sweeping puzzle, but the denouement is as powerful as anything I've seen since the `English Patient.' My one quibble is the somewhat gratuitously nude death scene was so horrible (and a little false- I've tried that as scuba training) that it simply overwhelmed all senses- one wanted to run screaming out of the theatre. I did notice on the DVD that that has been trimmed down.
A great movie, and moving discussion of an important political issue. 9 ½ out of 10. I've talked with Repub. Il. Gov. George Ryan, who commuted all death row inmates in Illinois after he discovered they'd freed more innocent DR inmates (17) than they'd executed (12)! In his words, `The system is rotten to the core arbitrary, capricious, unjust, racist, unfair- especially to the poor.' ---- Michael Hammerschlag hammerschlag@hotmail.com
This is a movie that will wound you, and trouble you; that will (like `Jacob's Ladder') make you grab anybody coming out the theater to argue what it meant, what they knew, what you think. The real Austin and Huntsville prison, Texas locations and local casting help the movie ring true- in almost every way- and the cloudy and rainy photography build the atmosphere of impending doom. It isn't an overtly preachy movie- the audience is left to make up their own mind and must connect the dots on a sweeping puzzle, but the denouement is as powerful as anything I've seen since the `English Patient.' My one quibble is the somewhat gratuitously nude death scene was so horrible (and a little false- I've tried that as scuba training) that it simply overwhelmed all senses- one wanted to run screaming out of the theatre. I did notice on the DVD that that has been trimmed down.
A great movie, and moving discussion of an important political issue. 9 ½ out of 10. I've talked with Repub. Il. Gov. George Ryan, who commuted all death row inmates in Illinois after he discovered they'd freed more innocent DR inmates (17) than they'd executed (12)! In his words, `The system is rotten to the core arbitrary, capricious, unjust, racist, unfair- especially to the poor.' ---- Michael Hammerschlag hammerschlag@hotmail.com