Honesty with self The film is sure to appeal to fans of those mainly night radio programs, where listeners call and talk about morality, religion and the meaning of life. The radio broadcast of the Christian radio station is a kind of soundtrack to the film and the life of the prison system worker Jack, on whom the possibility of early release of criminals depends in many respects.
Jack, for the role of which took on Robert De Niro, will find out how repented of the deed of the prisoner Stone – an accomplice in the murder of his grandfather. The role of Stone at first seems to be something simple and petty - the guy is eager for his beautiful wife to be free, all the while trying to skillfully manipulate Jack. And it's not clear why this shallow Stone is played by Edward Norton. It's not clear until Stone is betting on religion, apparently as another bargaining chip with Jack. And then it is very interesting to see how Stone makes marginal mystical teaching the center of his life, and the Catholic Jack, succumbing to temptation, loses faith.
A film where a person changes internally is not easy to make. I think you need the intuition of the director and, of course, acting. With the latter, thanks to De Niro's game, everything is fine. At what point did Jack lose his faith? It's hard to say for sure. Charles Darwin said that faith in God is gradually lost. But characteristic bells are scattered throughout the duration of the picture. Here's a confused Jack sitting at the priest's. Here he, thirsting for repentance of criminals, is not in a hurry to repent after treason. Finally, he ceases to understand all those radio preachers who say that all our righteousness is a dirty rag in the face of God. At the end of the film, he doesn’t even understand his wife.
Interestingly, when the decision on Stone is made, the director is in no hurry to finish the film. As if to say that in addition to this intrigue, there is another, more important. A sharp decrease in the pace of the picture is like the calm before the storm. Which has long been maturing in Jack's soul, waiting for a suitable reason to break out and devastate his already visible part of life.
The director can be reproached for some moralizing, especially when the main idea is chewed out from Stone’s lips during his last conversation with Jack in prison. But I think that with the right attitude, “Stone” is unlikely to seem boring.
For some reason, it is such paintings that raise moral questions that I would like to see in the Oscar nominees.
8 out of 10
Original