Another film about how Adrian Brody wakes up in the middle of the forest and does not remember under what circumstances he got there (the other was Predators, which seems to have even been released in the same year).
A film by one actor and an actor is very good. I definitely enjoyed the game Browdy. But here's the movie itself. First, the dynamics are absent until the very end. There is no dynamics, development of events and other things. Everything is smooth, albeit tense, and some suspense is present, but 60 minutes of suspense without any development tires.
Further, the movie is implausible from and to, which is a bit confusing, because this situation could be presented in a very real and adequate way. And here... the guy without food and water for almost a week, sometimes in the rain, in the mud and cold, while cheerfully crawling through the woods. Well, no, that's too much. And then, sailing the hell knows how down a mountain river, he finds himself in a place where he just could not be. How is that? Of course, it was necessary for the plot, but I was very surprised and amazed, because this is from the fiction section, and the film is like the wrong opera.
The behavior of the main character is stupid, unreasonable. It is strange that he even lived to the moment to which he lived (I try to speak without spoilers).
But I really liked the ending, even though I didn’t even hope for it. She saved the day. Here you have dynamics, and unexpected developments, and energy. Just because of that.
There are many films about survival in extreme situations, and this topic continues to grow. It’s hard to understand where this “birth” of the genre came from, but I think it’s the success of films like Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours and Rodrigo Cortez’s Buried Alive that brought the genre out of the shadows. Basically, the “highlight” of films of this genre is the play of one actor. Agree that Franco, that Reynolds in the films coped and played well. And so, not knowing what to see, I came across “The Victim” – a little budget picture of the unknown Canadian Michael Greenspan and starring Adrian Brody. I want to tell you about this movie today.
Plot:
The main character gets into a very unpleasant situation - waking up in a broken car, he finds that they fell into a ditch, there is no soul around, his leg is broken, and all the other passengers are dead, and soon under the seat he finds a gun. He doesn't remember anything about himself or his companions - where were they going? Who are these people? Who is he? His only task is to survive, and at the same time to remember what happened.
Director and team
Director:
For the newcomer, Michael Greenspan worked very well. I will tell you right away, that the film is for an amateur - someone will consider it a ugliness or a hack, always criticize and fall asleep while watching, and someone will like this film. As you can imagine, I belong to the second group. The film turned out to be not bad and it was interesting to watch it, but everything ruins the ending, which is well, the film is not good at all.
Scenario:
Christopher Dodd wrote a good script about the difficult fate of a man and his survival in the wilderness. I know you can’t envy the main character, but why put the word “F**k” in the script? Well, two or three times, but this word is pronounced very often. I liked the idea of the relationship between a man and a dog – it is certainly not “I am a legend”, but it also looks very beautiful and it is a pity that the dog in this film is practically useless. Mostly this film is almost without words.
There is no one else to celebrate, since there is practically no music in the film, and the work of the operator can be considered standard, but I want to say that the director and the team worked on the assessment of “good”, but with the indulgence that this film is the first work of the director and almost the entire team.
Actors:
The main role in the film was played by Adrian Brody and who perfectly coped with his task, and could not be otherwise (people who know his talent will confirm this). I don’t know how many, but I was filled with wild sympathy for his character and I felt very sorry for him. With his performance, Brody deserves applause, because he can not play every first-class actor. This film is Adrian Brody's play, in which he shows his skill - the highlight of the film.
Total:
Some people may criticize this movie, but I loved this movie. It's not "127 Hours," but you can watch it. A decent start to the director's career for Michael Greenspan, not a bad script by Christopher Dodd and the excellent performance of Brody make this film a good rating. I repeat that this film is an amateur and the emotions of this film will be different for everyone, so I do not even know who to recommend this film. Except for the loyal fans of Adrian Brody, who watch absolutely every movie.
Thank you for listening!
Just the film is not for everyone, for a narrow audience of fans of such at first sight meaningless pictures with one actor in the role.
In fact, the whole film is Brody, his talented, mesmerizing game. You can say, this is his benefit, where the other actors act as extras in tiny episodes. Those who love action have nothing to do here. The hero of the whole film fights for life, swallows painkillers, after which, a clouded consciousness does extraordinary tricks with him. It is very interesting to watch all this and to watch the picture on rewind is sacrilege! Here every frame is valuable if you look carefully and do not tune in to a negative way. It is better to stop watching this movie if it is not yours. For me personally, from the first shot everything was interesting and spectacular, I really wanted to know how the movie would end. The final, in my opinion, is slightly shaken - there are inconsistencies, but in general, wonderful!
9 out of 10
"The Victim" is an adventure thriller, the debut work of Michael Greenspan in the "full meter".
"The Victim" is a curious film. There is an ambiguous story and a great actor. But, nevertheless, the film failed at the box office and received a lot of negative reviews. The solution is simple – debutant Michael Greenspan took on a project that he simply can not teeth. Yes – here is a great story, but the story of the debut screenwriter Christopher Dodd is incredibly drawn out and filled with tormenting boredom. Yes, there is character evolution, but incredibly slow and slurred. The dialogue between the protagonist and himself is empty. In short, focusing on realism, the creators clearly overdo it with routine. Played the main role "Oscar-bearer" Adrian Brody squeezed all the juices out of himself, turned the character inside out, showed a brilliantly interesting game. But by the middle of the movie, this game is terribly boring.
Technically, the film also looks ambiguous. Banal operatorial work is only occasionally interspersed with interesting close-ups, and the monolithic nature, which has become the antagonist of the film, absolutely does not fall into the frame. And all this against the background of ringing silence, since the soundtrack is absent in favor of realism and cameramanship.
It turned out well for a novice director, but Michael Greenspan should learn this lesson that without proper skill and directorial acumen, no good actors and screenwriters will save the picture from failure. Rather, you need to measure your strength and knowledge, so as not to produce failed projects, of which so many have divorced.
5 out of 10
The whole film had to watch only the main character, since the idea of the film is such that it is on him that all attention is focused. The hero regains consciousness in a broken car in the middle of the forest, with a broken leg and in general in a terrible state.
It is necessary to pay tribute to the game of the main character, which was performed by Adrian Brody, because he rather believably portrayed the grimaces of pain and despair and joined the role of the “suffererer”.
The pros end there. Agree, it is quite difficult to look at one and a half hours at a person who, due to his injuries, very slowly performs actions, first just sitting in the car, then trying to crawl away from it. There’s nothing really interesting going on, except for the two or three people who appear in the movie besides our hero. The idea could turn out not bad, add the director some unexpected turn or tense moments.
In general, a fairly smooth and gray film, someone for once, and someone may not watch. Of the pluses, only the game of the main character.
I watched the film only because of Brody’s participation in it, which I did not regret. No, I’m not saying that it’s a brilliant or spectacular movie, quite in some ways – on the contrary, for example, everything is very predictable, from the beginning to the end of the film. That is why I recommend not to think about the script, not to try to predict, but just go with the flow. The mystery, of a criminal nature, is present and step by step, or rather, crawl by crawl, it will open to the viewer ... the main thing is to be patient and turn off intuition completely.
Of course, the film would not have had any audience interest, if not for the participation and really good performance Brody and he clearly understood this, so laid out almost to the fullest. The film of one actor, and also rich in close-ups, Brody's charisma and his ability to sincerely convey any range of feelings, strongly bribe, all the shortcomings of the film go to the background.
Although the theme of the film is quite “beaten”, but the audience interest in it will not fade, since each of us has a great opportunity to imagine himself a person in mortal trouble, compare himself with the hero and even win in this comparison, we are on the couch and nothing is broken. Watching a movie is very similar to an interesting sporting event, causes the same emotions as a fan, you persuade him not to give up, assure him that a little more and everything will be... there is no boredom near and that is the main thing.
Sometimes you just wonder what a person is willing to do to survive. What he is willing to go through, how much suffering he is willing to survive. So, in a way, this Adrian Brody movie is life-affirming. Unfortunately, not many people will see it. Well, at least few people will sit until the end.
Adrian Brody is a very talented actor, with a strong appearance and charisma, but he doesn’t seem to understand what films he should star in and what he shouldn’t. Hence such a roller coaster in his career. He either starred in a dull film that barely pays for itself, or the film with his participation becomes a cult. In this case, I did not see any cult.
The creators of the film try to immerse us in an atmosphere of pain, despair and struggle for survival, struggle with ourselves. They tried to make us feel what the hero is going through - through loneliness, pain, hunger, a desperate desire to survive and find out who he really is. But, alas, the film does not have the necessary atmosphere. I don’t know why, but just from the first seconds it turns off, the viewer does not get involved and he gets bored. The viewer just watches what is happening on the screen, but is not there, in the wilderness. Well, that's the downside of the whole crew. However, getting the right atmosphere is always quite difficult.
And then a little bit about camerawork. Of course, it pleased me, because the operators tried to find new angles and angles every time. However, due to the lack of the proper effect of engagement of the viewer, all this works only halfway. Therefore, each individual beautiful frame can be viewed simply as a beautiful picture.
Of course, I am very pleased with the courage of Adrian Brody. To pull the whole film, in which the conversation will be about 2 minutes from the force, to lay down in all the dirt that only met the film crew, to portray a suffering, exhausted, but not surrendered person - he could all this. It is only for his efforts that I make this assessment.
Now the film has already gained a certain “popularity”, so many have already formed their opinion whether to watch the film or not. Of course, I will not dissuade anyone, I will just advise you to be patient in order to fight with severe delay and frequent lack of logic.
5 out of 10
Adrian Brody in my view is associated with quite good works like "Midnight in Paris" and "Experiment" (remake of the film of the same name), therefore "Crash" was chosen by my next victim.
From the first minute, the viewer is in languishing anticipation of subsequent scenes and waits, along with the main character, for answers from not the most talkative travel companion, fishes out fragments of memories bit by bit and restores a series of events. With the passage of time, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish elements of reality from illusions generated by an inflamed brain, which is not in the best shape due to the lack of food in the most literal and figurative sense - it is not for nothing that it is said that man is a biosocial being.
Very even played into the hands of a clear realization of a broken leg, i.e. the limb is not slightly peeled, and the hero naturally can not tear it off the ground. That is why our protégé’s access to civilization becomes even more difficult.
Yes, the logic disappears in some places: let us take the most obvious example with the descent, when, according to all the laws of ordinary common sense, a car could not go so high by itself. It can be blamed on shock, loss of orientation or search for a potentially easier path – after all, it is much easier to descend than to climb in such and such a state.
The crash is quite a good representative of its subgenre Survive at any cost: the intimate, personal story of one man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's just how digestible the delicacy will be depends on your attitude to such work.
Survival can be boring, or what happened to Brody?
"Absolutely broken fatigue." Red-brown bursting whites of the eyes. The sight of a tortured man. A pathetic shadow that you want to sympathize with.
Adrian Brody in his latest projects decided to find out what this actor's sadomaso is. I remember his role in The Replacement Teacher. Read the first two lines of the review. Now I remember his role in The Crash. Read the first two lines of the review. The difference is that his unhappy character's condition didn't improve from role to role, but in "Teacher," the above was, so to speak, in the theme. It’s like a repetition here.
It was a little painful for me to see the beloved actor again from the first frames as if he would never be given for restoration, he would never be given a human appearance. It doesn't paint, gentlemen. Okay, you can do anything for the role, but why test yourself in a project with such a dubious boring scenario and for the sake of this succumb to torture makeup artists who inflict wounds almost deep into the pupils, breaking Brody’s outstanding nose, smeared in the forest mud ...
And there would be no futile attempts, only what kind of movie in front of us and is it a movie? I don’t know why I talked about the appearance of the disfigured Adrian B., because you need to bring thoughts to the film. Apparently, I slightly went into the obvious wilds to delay the moment of analysis, to which I do not want to return, but have to.
"Crash" shows us the most boring, ridiculous, boring survival that can happen to a person. What is the name of the wasted tape, that the "sand" poster should warn the viewer from viewing (if you can call watching), but who would you think in the main roles? The fishing rod is thrown.
Adrian Brody "with benefitil." Should I have? I won’t even metaphorically compare or embellish, I’ll just tell you how I got acquainted with the full-length debut of Michael Greenspan.
The first half an hour the main character is in the car. Then he gets out and crawls through the forest to the end credits. Meets hallucinations, people, a dog, a large cat of an incomprehensible breed (where is it in the forest?!?) (however, was it at all or was also dreamed of...), eats worms - bang, end. Fortunately, by the end Brody is cured of numerous scars, and the rotting leg remains only in the first stage of decomposition, when it is not so scary. Except that it is more unwashed, completely unwashed (bathing in the river does not count).
Oh, yeah, all those slow, stretched, detailed scenes I watched from and to exactly half-eye. I wrote something in a notebook, ate a jar of sprat, fell asleep a couple of times (given that the viewing was delayed for two days), and I do not regret that I did not lean on the screen with guts. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Sometime in the fiftieth minute, a mother joined the viewing, frantically commenting on every action of the crawling Incognito, and watching together was one gram more fun. Mom, of course, understood everything that needs to be understood, and it does not matter that it was almost an hour after the start, because there is no need to understand anything at all.
Here we go. The film is made in the manner of "as if it were in reality without embellishment", and I will tell you, it would be better if aliens flew into that forest - not true, but at least they would laugh. BUT... no, here is an additional example of how bad it is for a person alone in an unfamiliar place without a chance of salvation plus the final twist, revealing the secret of how the main character was trapped - also nothing original.
Without that, this incomprehensible film has given so many words, maybe it's time to evaluate?
And let's give it! Ball Adrian (for the courage to lie down in everything in the world and portray suffering), ball dog (for the game), ball big cat, like a young lioness (the zoo, apparently, was very close) and ball nature (for the design of the background).
Total:
4 out of 10
Get ready. Get a lot of food. Get some sleep. Sit down. Press "play" on the remote. Look at something else.