Jeff cMo
That was a very harsh review above. I saw the other films he spoke of, and I thought this was MUCH better. Elephant was nowhere near as good as this film, sorry.You can't compare this film with one of Michael Moore's documentaries. We have suffered more than one senseless shooting, and I personally think we could use a few more films about it. We need to raise awareness and learn how to love.This movie is a very real way to look at love. I personally think the reality of these situations was portrayed beautifully.I agree, the violence was tragic, but it happens. However, I don't see how you could be so disappointed, given the subject matter.Yeah, this movie is up there with Crash, if you ask me. :( Wake up America...
somehope
... about the politics of gun control. This film is more about what happens in life when things get complicated. The metaphor is guns, but the real issue is humanity. The issue could be about the environment, sex, or a f---in' alien ship. What matters most is what happens to characters we care about.The character I actually care about the most is Jane, played by Marcia Gay Harden. I've seen her in lesser roles, such as in "Miller's Crossing;" "Meet John Doe" (with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt), and "Pollock," for which she won an Oscar. I never been a fan until seeing her in this film, as Jane, a mother working two shifts in a factory so her son doesn't have to go to the same school that, a few years earlier, her other son and his friend destroyed in a killing spree. From the moment you see a cross around her chest line, and peer into pain filled eyes, you know she is devastated. Not by any law or control, but by the hand dealt her by life. Her son's decision to kill is never explained, nor does it have to be. She and her living son, played by "Joan of Arc's" Chris Marquette (who hits the right notes as a semi-innocent kid also facing the same aftermath)have to face the fact that he must go back to the same school because the money is running out. Jane even (arguably) prostitutes herself in a news story about the shooting, stirring up her family pain, and the pain of the patrolman who could have stopped the shooting but didn't ... and also secretly lives down the pain.Now I don't have anything against gun use in film (I reviewed John Woo's "The Killer", for Christ sake.) But in life, you're going to feel some sort of pain whether your protected or not. And watch how Jane, her son, and the policeman feel their pain, both in dialog an in silence, and you'll see some great acting.In the same year he won an Oscar for "The Last King of Scotland," Forest Whitaker also played a different authority figure, this one with a soul but little options.Whitaker's high school prinicipal Carter is anti-gun -- within the school, of course -- but is so devoted to helping the students, that he literally ignores his family for his job. Look at the man during the film: he constantly tries to fix an overhead fixture in the rundown school, yet has forgets his son in his office to reprimand some kids. He does this because he came into an inner-city from the Midwest with his family to make a difference for the kids today. He's not perfect: he ignores his family for his job; is unable to explain the murder of a hooker who died on the playground to his young son because he, maybe in his own heart, can't find the words to say it, slams a gun-toting student againist the wall, and is forced to expel another student, one I believe he admires for his scholastic work, because the student his the gun underneath the school. In the end of the film, he is acknowledged for his good deeds and also realizes they are not enough.Jay, another fine actor named Arlen Escaperta, -- watch for his name in other roles, he's good -- only did that because he needs the gun for self-defense in his job as a gas attendant late at night where, in one scene, he gets shot at through the glass windows. He survives, and is not a white/black (his color isn't important as his role's character is) typical inner city city youth who hates and wants to shoot back at eyerything. He just wants to live and get a better life.From Jane's suburbs and Carter's inner city to Donald Sutherland and his granddaughter's South, (their storyline receives the less attention, sadly, even though she questions her uneasiness about guns after witnessing a rape of a friend in college, their are no easy answers, and not aconventional Hollywood ending in the film, but I have some questions for YOU:If the title of the film was The Fog, would you be pro or anti-fog? If it was American Rabbit, would you be pro or anti-Rabbit? Seriously, this the Internet Movie Database, not Current Affairs 101. Hey, you can say what you like about this review, but at least it talked about acting and plot. You can believe what you want to, this is America. But could you at least stick to talking about the film instead of personalizing this issue? What I saw was a film, and I gave the best damn review of it I could, so if you're going to give me an unuseful comment button, go ahead. I did my job. Now, I don't give a damn.
tcs1
Amazing performances. Chris Marquette, Marcia Gay Harden, Forest Whitaker, Tony Goldwyn all turn in arguably career-best performances.But all of the acting is great! At times gut-wrenching to watch. ..When Tony Goldwyn (Frank) breaks down in his cop car, you can't help but feel the pain he is portraying right along with him. Arlen Escarpeta (Jay) is brilliant at displaying the struggle of a young intelligent man trying to grow up in a place where everything is set against him. Far from being anti-gun propaganda, it is a balanced portrayal of how guns affect the daily lives of Americans. You might even find yourself asking "Should I purchase a gun for protection?" Of course that leads to the debate: "If nobody had a gun, would I need protection?" See it with a friend and you will be discussing the pros and cons of guns in America for hours. All in all a film very worthy of attention.
