I want to make this clear: overall, I thought this was a good movie. Tom Welles (Nicholas Cage) is a private investigator hired to find the victim of what appears to be a snuff film, found by a widow after her rich husband's demise. In order to track it down he has to make his way into the deep world of violent and horrific porn.
You really have to know what you're getting into. It's the same thing with any movie that's disturbing - if you get taken by surprise you can have a really unpleasant experience. Se7en was like that. Schindler's List was like that. Closetland (a much more obscure movie) was also like that. But if you don't mind, or you're ready for it, you can get through it much more easily.
The climactic scenes are worth the wait. Cage becomes vengeance incarnate, and the dialogue is gripping.
By now you're probably wondering about that "boring" part from the summary. Okay. I can't stand when a movie tries to take the easy way out of anything, especially something as important as character development. Catherine Keener plays Amy Welles, Tom's wife. Tom also has a baby. This movie was LONG. This movie had a lot of plot to get through, and the wife and baby were there purely to make it look like Tom cared about his family. He didn't. They never have any effect on him, you never expect him to sacrifice anything of his work for them, and he doesn't. The movie would've been far better if they just hadn't been there to weight the plot down with pointlessness. It's like they didn't trust Nicholas Cage to be a good enough actor to portray being a good person. He did that fine, generally. In his scenes with Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter) he shows great empathy and compassion.
It bothered me a lot. It bothered my girlfriend even more, and so she *didn't* like watching this movie. But all in all I'd still have to give it a thumbs-up. I just wish they'd trimmed the fat a bit.
You really have to know what you're getting into. It's the same thing with any movie that's disturbing - if you get taken by surprise you can have a really unpleasant experience. Se7en was like that. Schindler's List was like that. Closetland (a much more obscure movie) was also like that. But if you don't mind, or you're ready for it, you can get through it much more easily.
The climactic scenes are worth the wait. Cage becomes vengeance incarnate, and the dialogue is gripping.
By now you're probably wondering about that "boring" part from the summary. Okay. I can't stand when a movie tries to take the easy way out of anything, especially something as important as character development. Catherine Keener plays Amy Welles, Tom's wife. Tom also has a baby. This movie was LONG. This movie had a lot of plot to get through, and the wife and baby were there purely to make it look like Tom cared about his family. He didn't. They never have any effect on him, you never expect him to sacrifice anything of his work for them, and he doesn't. The movie would've been far better if they just hadn't been there to weight the plot down with pointlessness. It's like they didn't trust Nicholas Cage to be a good enough actor to portray being a good person. He did that fine, generally. In his scenes with Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter) he shows great empathy and compassion.
It bothered me a lot. It bothered my girlfriend even more, and so she *didn't* like watching this movie. But all in all I'd still have to give it a thumbs-up. I just wish they'd trimmed the fat a bit.