These two crime films run against the trend. No special
effects. No gratuitous violence. And
only one pitiful car chase between them. Instead we get literate, intimate
stories about how crime affects those whose lives are intertwined with the
victims, and stellar casts to tell the stories.
 |
| Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Torturo |
In God’s Pocket — Philip
Seymour Hoffman, who died shortly after the film was released last year at Sundance,
plays the guy who tries to clean things up after his particularly nasty stepson
is killed. While director John Slattery
fails, in my mind, with the humor side of dark humor, he does effectively
render the culturally incestuous city neighborhood, God’s Pocket, as a place
where murder, racism and xenophobia rule. Hoffman captures the well-intentioned
but powerless poor soul with every movement and every utterance. His every
action makes a bad situation worse. John Torturo, and Richard Jenkins give their usual fine performances. The film is
based on Pete Dexter’s novel.
 |
| Sissy Spacek |
In The Bedroom — This is about as literary as a film can
get. I didn't read Andre Dubus’ short story, “Killings,” on which this film is based. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson play the parents of a young man who is about to
embark upon his life. The youth, played by Nick
Stahl, is killed by his girlfriend’s (Marisa
Tomei) ex-husband. The event is devastating as we witness, moment by
moment, the collateral damage. The killer, whose defense is self-defense, is
out on bond and is hardly invisible in the tiny town. His presence and the
likelihood his sentence will, if he is convicted at all, be light, is beyond
the grieving parents’ ability to cope. I mentioned this film to a friend of
mine. A parent herself, she said this
was one of the best movies she’d ever seen and that it is on her list of films
she’d never, ever see again. Field, Spacek, Wilkinson and Tomei were nominated
for nearly every award imaginable. The film was directed by Todd Field and released in 2001.
Refreshments: We can go from beer – PBR is okay – for the
first film, which takes place in a seedy, insular, explosive city neighborhood
to, considering the change of scenery, a modest white wine for the second,
which has a charming emotionally repressed northeast lobster-trapping village
as a backdrop.
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