I went to see this movie for only one reason: it had the very gifted John Noble in it, and his work is very difficult to come by outside Australia. However, despite the fact that he has only one scene near the end, I found the entire movie deeply engrossing and entertaining. I never found myself bored or impatient for a moment, even though mobster movies are not a genre I particularly enjoy or am even very familiar with. The story careens along at breakneck speed, and though it logically gives rise to the "Oh, great, what else can possibly go wrong next?" objection, it has so much energy and drive the question never arises. For such a violent movie, I found only one moment when I felt squeamish, when one character goes all Mike Tyson on another guy's ear.
I was really dreading the pedophile segment, which so many other posters have found disturbing and upsetting. However, I found it to be completely different from what I'd been expecting, and frankly found it absolutely hilarious in a dark and sick way. The couple are relentlessly sunny and upbeat, like a demented Ozzie and Harriet, hiding their perversion in plain sight, with a children's alphabet-block decorated Welcome mat right at their front door! I just found the contrast between the polished normality of their appearance and the fiendish evil lurking in the background to be some of the blackest humor I'd ever seen. It reminded me of the Edward Gory story "The Loathsome Couple", as did the illustrated credits sequence at the end.
I was really dreading the pedophile segment, which so many other posters have found disturbing and upsetting. However, I found it to be completely different from what I'd been expecting, and frankly found it absolutely hilarious in a dark and sick way. The couple are relentlessly sunny and upbeat, like a demented Ozzie and Harriet, hiding their perversion in plain sight, with a children's alphabet-block decorated Welcome mat right at their front door! I just found the contrast between the polished normality of their appearance and the fiendish evil lurking in the background to be some of the blackest humor I'd ever seen. It reminded me of the Edward Gory story "The Loathsome Couple", as did the illustrated credits sequence at the end.