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November 06, 2006
Brick
Brick isn't half as smart as it thinks it is. It tries really hard, with lots of dialog you can barely hear, conversations between characters about things you can't know yet, flashbacks, anti-stereotyping and lots of other stuff to keep you confused. In this way I think the film makers think that you'll continually want to see what happens next, if only to finally understand what's happened already.
I was able to put up with this, I'm a bit of a machocist in this way: confuse me, mislead me, turn everything on it's head in the final reel, I'm happy. But I do want the game to be worth it in the end, and this film doesn't deliver.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Brendan, a bit of a loner at a nameless American high school. His ex-girlfriend disappears, and he plunges into the criminal underworld to try and find her. His tenacity is a bit bizarre; he faces bullies and guns, endures beatings, and generally gets in a whole heap of trouble. Why would he do this?
The twist here is that all the criminals are also high school age. It doesn't quite work, they aren't menacing enough, and come across a bit like the gangsters in Bugsy Malone (the musical with kids). Unlike Gordon-Levitt, the supporting actors aren't as good, and some are actually quite poor.
And when we finally get to a conclusion, it isn't really very clever at all. Why he just didn't hand over the case to the police is beyond me.
Ties hard, but fails to impress. Some cool scenes.
Posted by se71 at November 6, 2006 11:11 AM
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