8/10
Pretty impressive movie.
9 November 2002
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is for the adult audience, the actors do a wonderful job portraying each role, I do wish it was a little longer, but it was well thought out and very good.

The beginning of the movie is shown to the very end, where a couple in the 70's are heading towards Texas with their baby, and they unfortunately end up picking up a soldier on his way home.

Summary: The seemingly normal couple Ray and Kate West live in the outback somewhere in Texas with their 3 sons, the adult son Jimmy is a great baseball player, but doesn't seem to want to do anything in his life except be around the younger boys, who he is extremely protective over. As the movie progresses we see that there are plenty of secrets hidden within the family when Jimmy is forced to have sex with Kate at gunpoint by Ray.

At first the impression I got of the movie was that Jimmy would no doubt kill his father one day for putting him through that form of incest, but as the movie continued it started to make more sense that it wasn't entirely incest, but more a very disfunctional family who suffer from Ray's war "wounds" and are paying the price of what he had gone through.

Ryan Phillippe does a superb performance as Jimmy, the tortured and hurt young man, who wants to be with his girlfriend, but has deeper issues concerning his family. John Savage, again another excellent performance, after seeing him in Dark Angel I must admit the bad guy routine really suits him, but I wasn't really fond of Natassja Kinski's acting and character. She still ends up being the devoted wife, who loves her husband even though he puts her through hell. How weak. The younger cast, the two sons were great, really good acting!

I'd give this movie a fair 8/10 with a question mark, being we live in this day and age wouldn't a mother try to protect her sons even if it means leaving her husband? (Or shooting him? Hello?? He has a gun in the house, doesn't anyone else know how to use one?!)
20 out of 23 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed