DEATH SENTENCE
A Hollow Man's Vengeance, Family Be Damned
The Popcorn Reel Movie Review: "Death Sentence"
By Omar P.L. Moore/September 2, 2007
Barrel down, body count up: Kevin Bacon as Nicholas
Hume, gets down to business in "Death Sentence", directed by James Wan.
The film opened this past Friday (August 31).
"Death Sentence", directed by James Wan ("Saw") has some
visually impressive scenes (cinematography by and ambitious action
sequences with film stock that has been slightly overexposed, and for that
reason it has a certain level of seduction in its style. But if only the
story wasn't as gaping or as hollow as the bullets which are fired by the round
and a-plenty in this film, very much a B-movie, or a "white-exploitation" flick,
if you will.
"Death Sentence" plays upon the primal fear of every father -- the death of one
of his children. Children are supposed to bury their parents, and not the
other way around, but this film adheres to chaos, including the disposal of
common-sense narrative. Credit the film though, for not beating around the
bush -- blood is here to be shed, and it is done so relentlessly.
And for all the bloodletting, for all the guns fired, the bad guys -- a gang led
by Billy Farley (Garrett Hedlund) -- are horrifically bad shots. Farley's
gang has slain the golden boy son of Nicholas Hume (Kevin Bacon), a VP at a
financial company in Los Angeles named Silverstar, and expectedly, Hume is an
emotional wreck, grief-stricken. Yet he chooses to continue to work in the
wake of the death of his eldest son Brendan (Stuart Lafferty), a star hockey
player for his college. Doesn't Starfish have bereavement leave? Is
this the way Fortune 500 companies treat its executives these days in the wake
of corporate scandals?? The company seems quite content to keep Mr. Hume
on its payroll, even when trouble comes knocking at its door.
Nick Hume is a family man, but he has a strange way of showing it, recklessly
putting his family in harm's way. The film's advertising campaign betrays
its main character when its posters (see below) trumpet, "PROTECT WHAT'S YOURS".
Kelly Preston plays Helen Hume, and barely suspects what is going on with her
husband -- her character should be much smarter than this -- and a wife and
mother of two kids would presumably have an intuition that is stronger than is
shown in Mr. Wan's film. The other Hume son, Lucas (Jordan Garrett) feels
the effects of his older brother's untimely departure and its repercussions on
the inter-familial relationships. This may be the only sincere and
authentic part of the film. Later on however, one corny, and even pathetic
speech to his surviving son seems to undo any sincerity that precedes some of
the scenes between Mr. Bacon and Mr. Garrett.
Police detective Wallis (Aisha Tyler) is the smartest character in "Death
Sentence" -- the facial expressions she delivers signal that she is too
intelligent to play a part in the film, so she dumbs herself down ever
so-slightly so as not to get too far ahead of the dimmer lightbulb characters
that proliferate Mr. Wan's film. The film is too predictable for its own
sake, and but one cannot fault Mr. Wan's direction and his strong visual style
is the most appealing aspect of "Death Sentence", which opened last Friday on
the last day of August. There is also a cheeky spaghetti western-Sergio
Leone tonal quality to parts of the film as well, that come across in some parts
of "Death Sentence".
The film has a catchy, overly loud and pulsating soundtrack, which fuels the
energy of "Death Sentence", and Kevin Bacon, an excellent actor, does what he
has to do here as Nick. There is only one way for his character to go in
this film, and with the traces of remorse and paroxysms of regret Nick Hume
exhibits, while hardly lacking complexity, abruptly turns on a switch that he
will never be able to turn off again.
There is a smart reverse twist in the film, but it is whether appropriate or
not, and whether the story (written by Ian Jeffers, based on Brian Garfield's
novel, a sequel novel to "Death Wish" -- yes, that "Death Wish") is
befitted by this twist or not -- is another topic of conversation for another
film review. There are echoes of films like "Heat" in "Death Sentence" --
specifically in the line uttered by Al Pacino's detective character -- "all I am
is what I'm going after" -- in Michael Mann's classic cops-and-criminals film of
1995, as well as one signature scene in that forerunning film that also turns up
here. Throughout "Death Sentence" there are subtle and not-so-subtle
parallels between bad and good, but ultimately the audience is numbed to such an
effect that they will probably not care that much.
"Death Sentence", which also borrows somewhat from Kevin Bacon's own role as
"Hollow Man" in Paul Verhoeven's movie from several years ago, also features a
wickedly twisted performance by John Goodman as Bones Farley, a gun-business
owner who is diabolical to say the least. Bones is also the father of
Billy Farley, and the apple certainly doesn't fall far from the tree. Mr.
Goodman's brief role is a nice moment of comic relief in a film that needed it.
But for fans of action violence, as long as the killings keep coming, comedy and
intelligence and a story that has more conviction in itself can take a backseat,
or a place on a metaphorical tombstone.
(Poster: Twentieth Century Fox)
"Death Sentence", which opened on Friday, August 31 across the
U.S. and Canada, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for
strong bloody brutal violence and pervasive language. The film's duration
is one hour and 50 minutes, and in one scene there is some Spanish language
dialogue with English subtitles.
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