Fierce People (2007)

Circumventing the Dark Side

Griffin Dunne was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short for "Duke of Groove" in 1995. Whether it's a screenplay that bounces like a ping-pong ball or the direction, the film seems to be trying to make the connection that even wealthy families have similarities to primitive civilizations. Brutality is an aspect of human nature would also sum up much of the film. The story seems quite unreal and nebulously defined as in the relationship of Donald Sutherland's Ogden C. Osbourne & Diane Lane. The plot is a cousin to the television series "Dirty Sexy Money" in which Sutherland also appeared as a wealthy patriarch.

Anton Yelchin who starred in Hearts in Atlantis with Anthony Hopkins and "Charlie Bartlett" is one of the best things about the film. His character Finn Earl seems like a teen who is always going to land on his feet and adapt to the many curves life throws at him. The violation of the boy is so charged that it makes what seemed like a romantic comedy suddenly dark and sinister. Chris Evans starred in Cellular (New Line Platinum Series), "The Fantastic Four" and this year in "Street Kings." His character seems warm and happy-go-lucky until we come to see the darker side. Evans never fully took me to the dark side or made me believe he was capable of the acts on which the film hinges. He was much better in the comic romantic aspect of the film. Diane Lane is so beautiful and natural as an actress, but again her casting as a boozy lush never really was believable. She never took us completely to the dark side. This is part of the major problem with the film, combining such disparate elements, but not convincingly.

Kristen Stewart who starred with Jodie Foster in Panic Room plays Maya, Osbourne's granddaughter. She comes across very well in the film as an iconoclast, unimpressed by her family's wealth. As Finn's summer romance, she seemed quite tender and sincere. Elizabeth Perkins from TV's "Weeds" puts in a good appearance as the wealthy daughter. The film is interesting. Donald Sutherland, Diane Lane, Anton Yelchin & Kristen Stewart's performances are worth the rental. Enjoy! June 10, 2008

Unbelievable people

If they gave an Oscar for most contrived story, this film would be a nominee. The film opens with Finn (Anton Yelchin), the teenage protagonist and narrator, viewing a copy of his father's documentary of a primitive South American tribe whose name translates "fierce people." Finn's father is a noted anthropologist who, after discovering the fierce people, returned to to the States just long enough to deliver a few lectures and impregnate Finn's mother (Diane Lane), then a college student, before returning to the jungles of South America. Although he never married Finn's mother, Dad has kept in touch with his son, and he has given him the next best thing to a live-in father: a copy of his documentary. I have read that the book on which this is based puts the story in the late-`70s, which, apparently, accounts for the documentary being in the form of a 16-mm film. Finn drags documentary and his trusty 16-mm projector with him through the film, drawing upon the documentary for wisdom and strength, or, perhaps, watching it simply because he's as bored with the goings-on around him as I was. We, too, get to watch stretches of the documentary. The parallels between the primitive fierce people of the documentary and the rich depicted in this film being obvious to anyone with an IQ above 80.

How do Finn and his mother find themselves living among the family of Ogden Osborne (Donald Sutherland), the seventh richest man in the United States? Apparently, on the strength of Finn's mother, a masseuse, having worked her magic on Mr. Osborne (or, perhaps, she has her own 16-mm film of those sessions). At any rate, it requires only a phone call from Finn's mother for Mr. Osborne to intercede in a legal problem confronting Finn, and then to whisk mother and son away and ensconce them in an enchanting cottage on his estate. There, Finn comes among the family Osborne, a cast of characters designed to put an exclamation mark to F. Scott Fitzgerald's observation that the rich are different. In the course of all this, Finn encounters romance, sex, and a lot of strange hokem in the woods of the estate (which even at night are extraordinarily well lit); learns the Osborne family's secret; and is sodomized by a mystery assailant whose identity is apparent long before the writers intend it. Thanks to these experiences, and to the insight gained from watching Dad's documentary, it is a wiser Finn who, with his mother and an escort of the South American fierce people (really!), leaves the Osborne estate at film's end. I didn't believe a minute of it.

I give the film two stars because of Donald Sutherland's presence. The role of Ogden Osborne doesn't require much of Mr. Sutherland, but watching him on cruise control is more interesting than watching most other actors in overdrive. I've never been impressed by Diane Lane's performances or with the films in which she has had major roles. Using Amazon's rating system, I would give her career to date three stars. Fortunately for her, a three-star actress is an asset in this film.

June 8, 2008

This movie left me feeling dirty (and not in the good way)

Basically, this movie depicts rich people as incredibly selfish and horrible human beings. The movie parallels the society of the priveledged to an indigenous tribe (I forget the parallel)... maybe survival of the fittest or something of that nature. There's drugs, sex (with adults and teenagers), murder, self-mutilation and sodomy of a teenage boy,.... need I say more. This was a story of a summer vacation gone horribly wrong....why did the family stay? As soon as this movie was over (I watched the entire film for some reason), I popped in a feel good movie: "P.S I Love You" (which was a much better movie, BTW) May 13, 2008

Yawn

There was much potential with this cast. Chris Evans was biggest disappointment, and only reason I bought the DVD. He should only act with his shirt off, as he did in CELLULAR, wherein his initial shirtlessness and the appearance of Jason Statham carried the rest of the movie.

Not so in FIERCE PEOPLE. Story meanders and gets lost after pivotal event mid-screenplay. Ending sucks. March 4, 2008

Horrible

This movie was awful. The acting was mediocre and there was essentially no plot. It didn't give any real insights into the lives of the rich or the conflict between rich and poor. It did not even work as a believable "coming of age" story. The director threw in some some gratuitous drug use and violence, but that was hardly enough to keep my interest. I was glad when the credits started rolling on this one. March 3, 2008

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