Review: STONE

A popular film genre(or sub-genre) over the years is the steamy, southern gothic drama encompassing everything from THE LONG,HOT, SUMMER to BODY HEAT. STONE is the genre’s newest entry which boasts several actors with impressive resumes.

The film opens on a steaming summer’s day (complete with insect noises on the soundtrack) as a young woman confronts a young man intent on watching a televised golf match.This is intercut with footage of a bee trying to get in thru their little girl’s upstairs bedroom. When the woman threatens to leave, the man storms upstairs to the bedroom and dangles the little girl out of the second story window. “You go and I’ll drop her!” he yells. The woman consents to stay and he bring the girl back inside. The woman slams the window shut on the bee(symbolic?). Quick cut to an older couple sitting in church.It appears that the young couple is now Robert DeNiro(as Jack Mabry) and Frances Conroy(as Jack’s wife Madylyn). We soon learn that Jack works with the parole board at the local prison and is counting the days till his retirement. He endures the monotony of his job(and home life) until he’s jolted awake by one inmate, Gerald “Stone” Creeson(Ed Norton). He’s confrontational while still trying to convince Jack to help shorten his sentence for arson. For good measure “Stone” tells his wife Lucetta(Milla Jovovich) to get friendly with Jack. Soon Jack’s spending his evenings with her while “Stone” undergoes a spirtual awakening thanks to a pamphlet and an attack on a fellow con.

Director John Curran(THE PAINTED VEIL, WE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE) can’t seem to bring any life to the script from Angus Maclaclan(JUNEBUG). The film’s pace makes it seem like a never-ending humid July day. The actors are doing what they can, but they can’t rescue the film from being overwrought and pretentious. Norton seems to be re-working his thuggish, marble-mouthed character from AMERICAN X with tight cornrows instead of a skinhead. It’s good to see DeNiro out of the soft family comedies and back into a drama, but he’s got little to do besides going from a frustrated meek man to explosive anger.The sex scenes between him and Jovovich(complete with body double insert shots) are truly embarrassing. Speaking of embarrassing, the casting of Jovovich as the unhinged, female fatale opposite Deniro is ,at best, clumsy. I’m sure she’s been very good in the RESIDENT EVIL film series, but she just doesn’t have the chops to pull off a role that Kathleen Turner could’ve played in her sleep circa 1984. Frances Conroy has very little to do as the long-suffering, miserable wife. The director borrows a page from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE by having snippets of religious talk radio playing throughout the soundtrack, but nothing can liven this up. I like the two main leads, but if you want to see an entertaining film with DeNiro and Norton, you’d be better of getting a copy of THE SCORE.

Overall Rating: 2 and 1/2 out of 5 stars