Best known for his genre horror films such as
Saw and
Dead Silence, director James Wan tries his hand at a more human kind of horror with
Death Sentence. The end result is a terribly mixed bag of scenes that work, and scenes that look like they belong in another movie. It would seem that Wan and first-time screenwriter, Ian Jeffers, were trying to decide if they should make the movie one of two ways. They try to have it both ways, and it ends up being a movie that's certainly not terrible, but winds up cheapening itself due to its own indecisiveness about its tone.
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a business man who would appear to have it all, with his idyllic suburban home and picture perfect family While driving home from a hockey game with his eldest son, Brendan (Stuart Lafferty), he is forced to make a pit stop at a scuzzy gas station. While Nick is gassing up the car, some gang members burst into the building and kill everyone inside, including Brendan. Nick is able to tackle one of the fleeing hoodlums, a low life named Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary). When Nick learns that there is not enough evidence to convict Joe for a long prison sentence, he decides to take the law into his own hands, tracks the man down, and murders him. Little does he realize, he has started a personal war that has not only endangered himself, but his family, including his wife Helen (Kelly Preston) and youngest son Lucas (Jordan Garrett). The other members of the gang, including Joe's brother Billy (Garrett Hedlund), will go to any lengths to find vengeance for Nick's actions. The police are seemingly powerless to help, so Nick will have to fight to the end to finish this war that he started.
Death Sentence is a movie of two mind sets, and never quite settles on a consistent tone. On one hand, it wants to be a thoughtful and tragic story about a man who suffers a great loss, performs a terrible action out of anger, and then cannot find a way out when he realizes how deep he has gotten himself into. This is the part of the film that works, because it focuses on Nick, his family, and the consequences of his actions. The movie has little ways to make us care and associate ourselves with the characters. During the opening credits, we see a series of home movies depicting the children at different ages, and helps us learn about the main characters before the story has even begun. It's a good idea, especially since when the credits are done, the movie almost jumps right into the story at hand. Once Brendan is killed, Nick struggles with himself and the dark thoughts that are entering his mind, since he can't seem to be able to find justice. When the action is done and his son's murderer is dead at his own hand, this only tears him apart even more. I liked it how the movie tried to show Nick as a deeply conflicted man who feels not justification at his actions, but instead horror. He has discovered a side to him he never knew existed, and the fact that he must pretend to his family and everyone else that nothing has changed within him only tears him apart even more.
If the movie had continued down this path, I could have fully gotten behind
Death Sentence. But, the whole plot of the gang members wanting revenge changes everything, and brings the film into its second mind set. This is of a graphically violent, loud, and stupid cartoon of an action film that does not mesh with the more honest and subtle moments. It's unfortunate that director James Wan starts to favor this approach more and more as the film goes on. That's not to say that these scenes don't do their job. They're expertly filmed, the stunts are impressive, and many of the action sequences are quite tense, the main highlight being a lengthy chase sequence where the thugs are chasing Nick down through the streets, an alleyway, through a building, and into a parking garage. The villains are broadly portrayed gang stereotypes, the action is so bloody that you almost think Wan was making another
Saw movie (plenty of depictions of limbs and body parts being blasted or cut off), and it just does not gel with the more thoughtful and realistic half of the movie that wants to talk about the effects on Nick and his family. We really are watching two completely different movies mixed into one, sometimes in the same scene. (Nick has a heartfelt talk with his younger son about he's sorry he was never a good father, then as he walks away, his eyes narrow with rage, he shaves his head, then goes to an illegal arms dealer and stocks up on guns and ammo.) The movie even eventually stops trying to make sense at times, such as a sequence where the villains can supposedly kill two cops, break into a house undetected, and kidnap an entire family in less than 5 seconds. I never completely lost interest while watching the movie, but I did start to lose hope that it would go back to the movie it originally was.
If the movie sometimes ventures into the unwanted realm of the ridiculous, the cast at least is mostly on solid ground throughout. Kevin Bacon does a great job at portraying the torment, rage, and anger that his character goes through during the course of the film. He is sympathetic, yet there is constantly a hidden rage beneath his performance, which at least makes it believable when he goes off the edge. As his surviving family, both Kelly Preston and Jordan Garrett get to portray somewhat realistic characters who find themselves drawn into something they never asked for, but stay by Nick's side out of devotion. As the youngest son, Jordan Garrett gets a great scene with Bacon where he breaks down and suspects that his dead brother was always the favorite. It's an emotional and effective scene, and hints at what an even better movie this could have been. The villains are all appropriately slimy and hateful, but not very interesting for the most part. The best performance on their side comes from John Goodman, who plays the father of the hoodlum Nick murdered. Really, the only weak link in the cast comes from Aisha Tyler (who can also be seen in this week's
Balls of Fury), who plays the detective initially assigned to the murder. Her character is scarcely developed, and her wooden acting and line readings just don't mesh with the rest of the talent on display.
Death Sentence is a movie that kept me interested, but disappointed me at the same time. I think a horror director was the wrong choice to handle this material, as he goes so over the top with the violence and gore that it sticks out like a sore thumb. It's an odd mixture of subtle human drama, and over the top "hit you over the head" action that just never comes together to a satisfying experience. There's a lot to like here, and I did my best to focus on the good when the movie started to go wrong. If it had just kept its interest up in the characters instead of the action, they could have had something here.
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Best known for his genre horror films such as Saw and Dead Silence, director James Wan tries his hand at a more human kind of horror with Death Sentence. The end result is a terribly mixed bag of scenes that work, and scenes that look like they belong in another movie. It would seem that Wan and first-time screenwriter, Ian Jeffers, were trying to decide if they should make the movie one of two ways. They try to have it both ways, and it ends up being a movie that's certainly not terrible, but winds up cheapening itself due to its own indecisiveness about its tone.
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a business man who would appear to have it all, with his idyllic suburban home and picture perfect family While driving home from a hockey game with his eldest son, Brendan (Stuart Lafferty), he is forced to make a pit stop at a scuzzy gas station. While Nick is gassing up the car, some gang members burst into the building and kill everyone inside, including Brendan. Nick is able to tackle one of the fleeing hoodlums, a low life named Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary). When Nick learns that there is not enough evidence to convict Joe for a long prison sentence, he decides to take the law into his own hands, tracks the man down, and murders him. Little does he realize, he has started a personal war that has not only endangered himself, but his family, including his wife Helen (Kelly Preston) and youngest son Lucas (Jordan Garrett). The other members of the gang, including Joe's brother Billy (Garrett Hedlund), will go to any lengths to find vengeance for Nick's actions. The police are seemingly powerless to help, so Nick will have to fight to the end to finish this war that he started.
Death Sentence is a movie of two mind sets, and never quite settles on a consistent tone. On one hand, it wants to be a thoughtful and tragic story about a man who suffers a great loss, performs a terrible action out of anger, and then cannot find a way out when he realizes how deep he has gotten himself into. This is the part of the film that works, because it focuses on Nick, his family, and the consequences of his actions. The movie has little ways to make us care and associate ourselves with the characters. During the opening credits, we see a series of home movies depicting the children at different ages, and helps us learn about the main characters before the story has even begun. It's a good idea, especially since when the credits are done, the movie almost jumps right into the story at hand. Once Brendan is killed, Nick struggles with himself and the dark thoughts that are entering his mind, since he can't seem to be able to find justice. When the action is done and his son's murderer is dead at his own hand, this only tears him apart even more. I liked it how the movie tried to show Nick as a deeply conflicted man who feels not justification at his actions, but instead horror. He has discovered a side to him he never knew existed, and the fact that he must pretend to his family and everyone else that nothing has changed within him only tears him apart even more.
If the movie had continued down this path, I could have fully gotten behind Death Sentence. But, the whole plot of the gang members wanting revenge changes everything, and brings the film into its second mind set. This is of a graphically violent, loud, and stupid cartoon of an action film that does not mesh with the more honest and subtle moments. It's unfortunate that director James Wan starts to favor this approach more and more as the film goes on. That's not to say that these scenes don't do their job. They're expertly filmed, the stunts are impressive, and many of the action sequences are quite tense, the main highlight being a lengthy chase sequence where the thugs are chasing Nick down through the streets, an alleyway, through a building, and into a parking garage. The villains are broadly portrayed gang stereotypes, the action is so bloody that you almost think Wan was making another Saw movie (plenty of depictions of limbs and body parts being blasted or cut off), and it just does not gel with the more thoughtful and realistic half of the movie that wants to talk about the effects on Nick and his family. We really are watching two completely different movies mixed into one, sometimes in the same scene. (Nick has a heartfelt talk with his younger son about he's sorry he was never a good father, then as he walks away, his eyes narrow with rage, he shaves his head, then goes to an illegal arms dealer and stocks up on guns and ammo.) The movie even eventually stops trying to make sense at times, such as a sequence where the villains can supposedly kill two cops, break into a house undetected, and kidnap an entire family in less than 5 seconds. I never completely lost interest while watching the movie, but I did start to lose hope that it would go back to the movie it originally was.
If the movie sometimes ventures into the unwanted realm of the ridiculous, the cast at least is mostly on solid ground throughout. Kevin Bacon does a great job at portraying the torment, rage, and anger that his character goes through during the course of the film. He is sympathetic, yet there is constantly a hidden rage beneath his performance, which at least makes it believable when he goes off the edge. As his surviving family, both Kelly Preston and Jordan Garrett get to portray somewhat realistic characters who find themselves drawn into something they never asked for, but stay by Nick's side out of devotion. As the youngest son, Jordan Garrett gets a great scene with Bacon where he breaks down and suspects that his dead brother was always the favorite. It's an emotional and effective scene, and hints at what an even better movie this could have been. The villains are all appropriately slimy and hateful, but not very interesting for the most part. The best performance on their side comes from John Goodman, who plays the father of the hoodlum Nick murdered. Really, the only weak link in the cast comes from Aisha Tyler (who can also be seen in this week's Balls of Fury), who plays the detective initially assigned to the murder. Her character is scarcely developed, and her wooden acting and line readings just don't mesh with the rest of the talent on display.
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