Stone has a very intriguing first act--carefully setting up its characters and situations--leading into a very interesting development in its second act--only to completely blow its momentum by shifting focus completely away from Stone in its third act. (why would a movie called Stone not be about the character who's named Stone???)
Ed Norton as the cornrows wearing ex-con seeking spiritual enlightenment is actually pretty believable once you get past the fact that its Ed Norton (which i didn't have any trouble doing past the first scene--i thought he was fine.) Robert De Niro seems to be sleepwalking yet again at first, but in this case its his character who's sleepwalking as that seems to be his default setting in life. His performance isn't bad either--and the early scenes of the 2 men playing off each other hold a lot of promise...even if De Niro's character is more or less the kind of character he used to play a lot more often
(it actually reminded me of Robert Duvall's character in Get Low--De Niro's character is a hermit here too, defined primarily by the guilt he may or may not feel over an act of seeming violence he may have committed as a young man--which is incidentally the opening scene of this film--again mirroring the opening scene of Get Low which also features an act of cowardice that comes to define Duvall's life of solitude--- De Niro's character doesn't really communicate with many people--even the wife he lives with--and the movie's content and pacing isn't unlike Get Low either as its essentially about the re-awakening of an old hermit to his life--although this is certainly a much more pessimistic movie overall...much more so.) So the first act is mostly De Niro trying to figure Stone out--and Stone tries to assess what De Niro's weakness might be...and how he can try and exploit it. These scenes are solid..and leave you wanting more--and soon we get the introduction of Norton's wife who seems like she'll do anything to help her husband get out....and its here where the film's first problem pops up---how exactly does Mila Jovovitch manage to coax De Niro out of his shell again?!?!?!? we see scenes of her frantically trying to get his attention and him actively resisting--but then before you know it--he's engaging with her--and maybe i missed how she got to him--but i didn't quite understand what or how De Niro finally got coaxed out of his shell...or what it is that sends him fleeing right back into it more then halfway through. Meanwhile the film has had a recurring shots of De Niro listening to this religious radio station on his car on the way to and from work--and we hear the DJ talking about sin, and salvation, and what a person can do to try and salvage his prior acts to make himself whole again...it makes sense within the film as De Niro and Norton have been almost exclusively talking about Norton's shame and any possible sense of remorse Stone may or theoretically should feel if he really wants the parole he's seeking.
Film then tries to pull everything together by having Stone actually attain the religious enlightenment he had actively been seeking out (!!!!)---much to De Niro's confusion, and increasing anger. This is a very interesting development- both for the characters and for the film-and the handful of scenes that focus on Norton's new found enlightenment are very interesting to observe--and personally i felt that the film should have really dug deep into Stone's new found sense of self more then it does. The film kind of takes it for granted that Stone is more or less comfortable in his newfound sense of self worth and more or less spends the rest of the film with De Niro's increasingly agitated parole officer. Stone's serenity is very much aggravating De Niro and the third act seems to be about how De Niro reactions to Stone's personality seems to change his own life for the worse.
Once again sadly for a film titled Stone--the movie doesn't seem to focus too much on Stone--choosing instead to try and go overly in-depth on the only major character in the movie who's not named Stone. I don't want to say that this is a mistake--as De Niro's character is the one with the more potentially bottled up rage inside him--but i feel as a character---De Niro's corrections officer is just not all that interesting enough to sustain viewer interest. The character is kind of rock stubborn and resistant to any change whatsoever--so in a sense he is the stone of the title as well--but this idea of De Niro's character being the one that really needs the enlightenment and failing to achieve it never quite comes off as being anywhere near interesting or moving enough the way that it should in order for the actions De Niro's character takes towards the end of the movie to really land. De Niro's character's actions make sense emotionally, but not so much logically--which may in fact be the point the film's trying to make altogether but by this point--the film's already lost me to questions about what happened to Stone and how come he's suddenly not on screen anymore? Its a very nice mood piece overall--and the 2 leads are fine and all--but as the film goes on and the focus shifts more and more towards De Niro's parole officer (which to be honest it pretty much has been for most of the film already) and less and less on Norton's unique prisoner-dropping him from long stretches in the last half hour altogether-the film gets more and more problematic--and less and less interesting. See it if you like either of the 2 leads for sure, but otherwise you might be disappointed.
Ed Norton as the cornrows wearing ex-con seeking spiritual enlightenment is actually pretty believable once you get past the fact that its Ed Norton (which i didn't have any trouble doing past the first scene--i thought he was fine.) Robert De Niro seems to be sleepwalking yet again at first, but in this case its his character who's sleepwalking as that seems to be his default setting in life. His performance isn't bad either--and the early scenes of the 2 men playing off each other hold a lot of promise...even if De Niro's character is more or less the kind of character he used to play a lot more often
(it actually reminded me of Robert Duvall's character in Get Low--De Niro's character is a hermit here too, defined primarily by the guilt he may or may not feel over an act of seeming violence he may have committed as a young man--which is incidentally the opening scene of this film--again mirroring the opening scene of Get Low which also features an act of cowardice that comes to define Duvall's life of solitude--- De Niro's character doesn't really communicate with many people--even the wife he lives with--and the movie's content and pacing isn't unlike Get Low either as its essentially about the re-awakening of an old hermit to his life--although this is certainly a much more pessimistic movie overall...much more so.) So the first act is mostly De Niro trying to figure Stone out--and Stone tries to assess what De Niro's weakness might be...and how he can try and exploit it. These scenes are solid..and leave you wanting more--and soon we get the introduction of Norton's wife who seems like she'll do anything to help her husband get out....and its here where the film's first problem pops up---how exactly does Mila Jovovitch manage to coax De Niro out of his shell again?!?!?!? we see scenes of her frantically trying to get his attention and him actively resisting--but then before you know it--he's engaging with her--and maybe i missed how she got to him--but i didn't quite understand what or how De Niro finally got coaxed out of his shell...or what it is that sends him fleeing right back into it more then halfway through. Meanwhile the film has had a recurring shots of De Niro listening to this religious radio station on his car on the way to and from work--and we hear the DJ talking about sin, and salvation, and what a person can do to try and salvage his prior acts to make himself whole again...it makes sense within the film as De Niro and Norton have been almost exclusively talking about Norton's shame and any possible sense of remorse Stone may or theoretically should feel if he really wants the parole he's seeking.
Film then tries to pull everything together by having Stone actually attain the religious enlightenment he had actively been seeking out (!!!!)---much to De Niro's confusion, and increasing anger. This is a very interesting development- both for the characters and for the film-and the handful of scenes that focus on Norton's new found enlightenment are very interesting to observe--and personally i felt that the film should have really dug deep into Stone's new found sense of self more then it does. The film kind of takes it for granted that Stone is more or less comfortable in his newfound sense of self worth and more or less spends the rest of the film with De Niro's increasingly agitated parole officer. Stone's serenity is very much aggravating De Niro and the third act seems to be about how De Niro reactions to Stone's personality seems to change his own life for the worse.
Once again sadly for a film titled Stone--the movie doesn't seem to focus too much on Stone--choosing instead to try and go overly in-depth on the only major character in the movie who's not named Stone. I don't want to say that this is a mistake--as De Niro's character is the one with the more potentially bottled up rage inside him--but i feel as a character---De Niro's corrections officer is just not all that interesting enough to sustain viewer interest. The character is kind of rock stubborn and resistant to any change whatsoever--so in a sense he is the stone of the title as well--but this idea of De Niro's character being the one that really needs the enlightenment and failing to achieve it never quite comes off as being anywhere near interesting or moving enough the way that it should in order for the actions De Niro's character takes towards the end of the movie to really land. De Niro's character's actions make sense emotionally, but not so much logically--which may in fact be the point the film's trying to make altogether but by this point--the film's already lost me to questions about what happened to Stone and how come he's suddenly not on screen anymore? Its a very nice mood piece overall--and the 2 leads are fine and all--but as the film goes on and the focus shifts more and more towards De Niro's parole officer (which to be honest it pretty much has been for most of the film already) and less and less on Norton's unique prisoner-dropping him from long stretches in the last half hour altogether-the film gets more and more problematic--and less and less interesting. See it if you like either of the 2 leads for sure, but otherwise you might be disappointed.