Film Review three of six
Out of the six films I am reviewing this week, the most promising based purely on the
concept and the avenues in which it could have gone into was 'The
Purge', a fellow critic John, who I have the pleasure of co-hosting a weekly podcast with, has brought up on numerous
occasions before screening the movie, "What if" this was the case in
today's society, What would you do? What do you think your neighbour would
do? A very open ended question with no
real wrong answers, and a great platform to have an open dialogue of discussion
on.
While watching the early portion of the film,
you get subtle hints of what you might expect to come with the ambivalence of
conversations with the neighbours, There are the motif of news feeds discussing
the underlying purpose of such an act, regarding the poor and homeless, and
really what is the hidden purpose of this day, does it really help
society?
The second act offers
a twist and narrows in the films direction quite suddenly, as the family
unannounced to them; innocently takes in a wounded man, immediate thoughts of
the sociological deep ended thriller of Clockwork Orange comes to mind about
violence in society. That notion soon dissipates
at great length thanks to the awkward camera movement and skewed visions
becoming just annoying as the movie progresses, and though the movie nudges
Ethan Hawke’s character to face some sort of pivotal understanding; we are
never given time to get the understanding or formulate an opinion of why him
and his family. The opus of the film
comes from the daughter, after watching her parents torture a man without hesitation,
and watching her boyfriend die in her arms, 'That things will never ever be the
same again'
.
In the movie trailer
we see the polite stranger; the so called self professed leader of the gang of
purgers' looking to enter in and fulfill their need to purge. By killing a man the family has
mistakenly taken in. Surprisingly, the polite stranger's involvement in the film is very minuscule, almost a McGuffin, His role sets a
time frame in the entire second act of the film; and the final act addresses
the underlying nuances delivered at the beginning of this movie; but not without giving us an unexpected turn. The drawn out suspense was by far better
created in Ethan Hawke's movie Sinister, which can be looked on as extension to
the first Insidious movie based on the demon in that film.
Instead we get really closed in acts of violence
both large and small aimed primarily at this particular family, with questions
of the family's motives never being clearly answered. With their initial choice
of not to take part of the purge, but prosper in Hawke's Job in providing home
security to his clients. This movie tell us the cathartic release of the annual
purge is a good thing, the viewer is shown arguments to the contrary, Like an
innocent person who gets thrown in jail for a long sentence, he or she just may
themselves turn into monsters due to the set of circumstances.
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