Review of film: "STRAW DOGS"

2011, 09-14:

Review of film:  “STRAW  DOGS”

In 1971, Dustin Hoffman starred in the “original” version of this movie directed by Sam Peckinpah...

...  This R-rated new version is directed by ROD LURIE & is 110 minutes long...

... In this film, we met a Los Angeles-based screenwriter named David Sumner (JAMES MARSDEN)...

...  He has written for a TV program starring his wife Amy (KATE BOSWORTH), & decides to get away to a “relaxing” area where he can write a new SCREENPLAY about the World War II NAZI siege of STALINGRAD in Russia...

...  In order to take over a house that Kate’s now-deceased father had owned, James & Kate go to her small hometown in Mississippi, which she hadn’t been back to for a number of YEARS...

...  Kate is greeted with “enthusiasm” (& strong doses of LUST) from the “redneck”-type males they pass in going thru the town... 

...  All the guys seem to “REMEMBER” sexy Kate from when she lived there (years before), & she seems to be sort of “ENCOURAGING” that reaction by the “Hollywood starlet” type clothes she tends to wear...

...  James seems comparatively “UNAWARE” or frighteningly “naïve” about the way the guys are “reacting” to Kate...

...  Especially “strange” is the way he agrees to hire an ex-BOYFRIEND of Kate’s named Charlie (ALEXANDER SKÅRSGARD) to do REPAIRS on a sort of “barn” on their property in the countryside...

...  Alex acts very “deferential” towards James in asking for the reconstruction business--  but it’s clear to us that he & his low-life assistants are almost always LEERING at Kate & making fun of JAMES & his ineffectual “rich-guy” ways (of driving a fancy Jaguar convertible car, acting “weak”, etc.)...

... Kate seems much more “with-it” in the ways she DEALS with the townspeople.  She tries to discourage James from hiring Alex--  but James tends to act STRONG-WILLED with her (almost to the point of being BULLYING), whereas he acts sort of “WIMPY” & afraid-to-speak-up to other MALES...

...  Well, James hires Alex & his workers Chris (BILLY LUSH), Norman (RHYS COIRO), & Bic (DREW POWELL)...

...  When the workers arrive, we see they’re clearly “DOGGING-it”, doing a “slacker” type job, lazing around & “shooting the bull” on the roof they’re supposed to be repairing, etc...

...  And, they’re also regularly LEERING at Kate, such as following her & making remarks to each other as she sweats while running in her jogging suit...

...  Alex wants to quit their unfinished work at noon, to go HUNTING.  James doesn’t like their doing that--  but, he continues AVOIDING speaking his mind to them about his displeasure, seemingly “afraid” to engage in any “CONFRONTATION” with them (or OTHER people in town)...

... In town, there are a lot of tensions at a BAR:  there’s an ex-football coach named Tom Heddon (JAMES WOODS), who’s clearly DRUNK & VIOLENT...

...  Woods threatens a mentally-slow guy named Jeremy Niles (DOMINIC PURCELL), warning him he’d better stay away from his daughter Janice (WILLA HOLLAND), claiming he’d supposedly “bothered” her in the past...

...  When Woods gets ferocious because the bartender won’t serve him another BEER he wants, he’s eventually “calmed” down by the town’s black “peacemaker” cop, John Burke (LAZ ALONSO)...                  

...  Altho Kate keeps complaining to hubby James about ALEX & the way he & his workers keep leering at her & the like, he “pooh poohs” that... 

...  But then, Kate periodically continues to wear ridiculously “SEXY” outfits around them & other guys she supposedly wants to not be “bothered” by...  You wonder, WHAT is really “going-on” here?!...

...  It’s clear from the way Alex privately talks to Kate that he STILL has a “THING” for her (apparently not accepting that she’d BROKEN UP with him years before)... 

...  She keeps urging James to “SPEAK-UP” to Alex & the other workers about the poor & slow job they’re doing on the barn--  but, he keeps SIDESTEPING actually CONFRONTING them directly about matters... 

...  At one point in one of their many disagreements, Kate tells James that, “You’re a COWARD!” -- & he CONTINUES to behave that way around males, all the while he frequently acts harsh towards HER...  (He’s clearly got a lot of “ISSUES”!...) 

...  James seems to be trying to act like an open-minded “GOOD” guy (regularly letting the workers go off hunting rather than consistently working on the repairs), as if that attitude will “IMPRESS” them... 

...  Well, they’re impressed all right--  by the way he keeps acting like a “WUSS” around them!...

...  When Kate pushes for things being done the way she wants, James regularly does the OPPOSITE, as if he feels a “need” to put HER “in line” with his “macho” wishes...

...  At one point, trying to “impress” Alex & his workers (that he’s a “MAN” & all), James agrees to go off on his first-ever “HUNT” with them... 

...  But, they lead him astray, abandon him, & go back to his home & promptly RAPE Kate...

...  While Kate tries to resist the guys, of all things, she says NOTHING afterwards to JAMES (much less to any COPS) about what had happened to her...  And, when he gets home, James --  as usual --  is oblivious to it all...   

...  As tensions continue to build in the world of James & Kate, they go off to see a FOOTBALL game at the high school (because Kate feels it’s important to try to “FIT-IN” with the townsfolks, since James refuses to LEAVE the area as she WANTS him to do...  Yes, I know--  it doesn’t make much “sense”!...)

...  During the game events, we see Woods’ daughter Willa trying to seduce poor Dominic...  Her father Woods --  crazy as usual – tries to FIND her, & that leads to some TRAGIC consequences (especially when Kate & James unknowingly TAKE-IN Dominic to their HOME)...

...  Will James be able to FIRE Alex & his workers as Kate keeps telling him to do?...

...  Will Kate ever TELL people what Alex & his workers had DONE to her?...

...  Will Woods be able to convince Alex & his workers that they should continue their ATTACK on the home of Kate & James?...  

...  And, if Woods succeeds, WHAT will HAPPEN from that confrontation?...

...  In a number of ways, this movie does a quite skillful job of building-up steamy TENSIONS between the various characters...  Do understand that there’s loads of ever-growing VIOLENCE permeating the story (which is why it’s rated “R”)...

...  The acting itself is very GOOD overall, tho periodically “OVER-the-TOP” due to the “gothic redneck” scenarios set-up by the story...

...  There are elements that seem RIDICULOUS & unbelievable & “out-of-sorts”, such as:

...  The way Kate keeps COMPLAINING about being “leered”-at, yet persists in wearing “provocative” outfits around people she knows she CAN’T “TRUST” in such situations (because of how they’d behaved towards her in the past)...  And the way she keeps SILENT about the rape & all...

...  And the way James alternates between being “oblivious” and non-confrontational with the low-lifes, & then tries to “IMPRESS” them (for no “WORTHWHILE” purpose, especially when his wife Kate warns him “AWAY” from such “appeasement” attitudes)...

...  One of the “taglines” of the film is, “Once you’re pushed to the LIMIT, you’ll know who you REALLY ARE.”...  

...  That “sounds” catchy on the “surface”, but it’s “VAGUE-speak” in the way it’s HANDLED in the movie:  it’s debatable how much real “pushing” there is, as opposed to spineless “EVADING” techniques being used by James thru most of the film, & the strange “silences” (rather than “explanations” or helpful actions) by Kate...

...  When you get down to it, I guess one of the most exasperating things is the LACK of any real “explanation” of the strange “PASSIVE – AGGRESSIVE” behavioral relationships concerning James & Kate...

...  The whole film seems to exist under the “message” that, having a failure to effectively “COMMUNICATE” can be DEADLY...

...  So, while the film presents some INTRIGUING psychological “character-studies”, the WEAKNESSES in the plot lines (including how James suddenly “responds” to the attack on his house) tend to “overwhelm” & undercut the effective TENSION & ACTION scenes (which at times seem overly vicious)...

...  Thus, “balancing” the GOOD elements against the not-so-“impressive” ones, I’m rating this at 7.50 out of 10 stars...

  

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