Plot Summary
Academy-Award®-winner Robert De Niro and Academy-Award®-nominee Edward Norton deliver powerful performances as a seasoned corrections official and a scheming inmate whose lives become dangerously intertwined in this thought-provoking drama. As parole officer Jack Mabry (De Niro) counts the days toward a quiet retirement, he is asked to review the case of Gerald “Stone” Creeson (Norton), in prison for arson. Now eligible for early release, Stone needs to convince Jack he has reformed, but his attempts to influence the older man’s decision with his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich of THE RESIDENT EVIL series) have profound and unexpected effects on them both. This tale of passion, betrayal, and corruption skillfully weaves together the parallel journeys of two men grappling with dark impulses, as the line between lawman and lawbreaker becomes precariously thin.
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Movie Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes
TOMATOMETER
50%- Reviews Counted: 92
- Fresh: 46
- Rotten: 46
- Average Rating: 5.8/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Rotten: [It ends] up subverting expectations by denying pleasure.
Rotten: Moral ambiguity and ethical compromise are at the heart of this meandering prison drama, but at a certain point we simply don't care anymore who is base and baser.
Fresh: Genuinely odd in its mixture of bluntness and indirection, screenwriter Angus MacLachlan's study in biblical temptation is saved from its own heavy-handedness by a fine quartet of actors.
Fresh: It presents us with four characters who are fascinating, specific and yet in some way unknowable, not like the usual characters in fiction but rather like people we might meet in life.
Customer Reviews
Norton's Best!
While we didn't get the usual--dramatic--character flip that Norton usually delivers (Fight Club, Primal Fear, American History X), this was his best performance to date: Edward Norton, single-handedly, makes this movie worth watching. Stupid critics will fail to see the philosophical merit of this film, categorizing it as mindless religion, but that of course is the easiest, most superficial interpretation. This film is about the struggle to achieve internal peace, to come to terms with oneself, to understand what is true, to understand what qualifies a person as good, and, as ambiguous as it sounds, this film is about life: a focused synthesis of all the subtleties that constitute the human condition, i.e., you, me, and everyone else.
Great actors, weak movie.
As great as it was to see Dinero and Norton do multiple scenes together, both Dinero's and Norton's characters were people you couldn't beleive in, get behind, or feel good about. Both were confused, undefined, and shifty. There's nothing to walk away with at the end of the movie except feeling bad for both of them, and not in a way that "CRASH" did it with their characters. This is about 1/10th the quality of Crash with the same underlying meaning of life struggles no matter who you are or what you do. This movie never had a climax or made it worth sitting through all the character building. If there were any twists, they were done at the timing of the writers to have the movie make sense for them, not so much for the viewer. Watch something else unless you are bored and want to feel empty for no reason afterwards.
Not film noir, much more interesting
Sadly, people will be disappointed in this film because they advertised a different film. But if you let that go and see it for what it is you will enjoy it immensely. A character study and a meditation. The acting is excellent and the silences inform greatly. Some of the audio cues are a little to on the nose, but not so much as to detract from a soulful and unexpected film. For adults who like to think and parse, a film for you.
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