Frailty
Lizzie Borden Took An Axe. . .
'The meek shall inherit the earth,' or in this case to
be more precise, the Meiks of Thurman, Texas. A tight little gothic tale
has been presented for our perusal with God, Avenging Angels of Death,
ax murders, a dysfunctional family, twists and turns, and the all too
frequent little goings on, that are created behind closed doors and drawn
shades when we think no one is looking or cares.
Matthew McConaughey (Fenton Meiks) comes into the Dallas FBI office on a
storm drenched night with a tale that sounds for all the world, like the
delusions of a person not playing with a full deck of cards. But, as time
passes, Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) is drawn into the web of horror
that will cascade into a series of flashbacks and present day situations,
and will leave his life as he knows it, terribly remiss and out of place.
Bill Paxton, who also pulls double duty as the director of Frailty, plays
the widowed father of Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) and Fenton Meiks (Matthew
O'Leary). His trade as a mechanic brings in the necessary funds to keep
their heads above water and to eke out a frugal existence in a small Texas
town, that could have been Anytown, USA. One night, Dad Meiks, has a vision
of an angel sent from God telling him that he and his boys will be called
upon to destroy 'demons', which have been sent to permeate the world before
its' eventual conclusion. The demons' names will come soon, as will the
weapons of eventual destruction. These demons, he is told, take human
form, and while the population in general thinks them to be human, they
are far off course in their evaluations. While young Adam swallows his
father's edict hook, line and sinker, Fenton betrays a gnawing sense of
being in a nightmare not of his own choosing. Has his father lost his
sense of rational reasoning, or has he truly
been visited from above? The moment that Fenton thinks he has
awakened from a nightmare, he is grabbed by the throat and cast back into
the maelstrom of evolutionary turns and twists.
From the moment the first demon has been selected for elimination, until
the closing credits of this film, the viewer is drawn into a realm of light and dark that challenges our sense of right and wrong. The
innocence of the children is ripped apart, and the sense of dedication
that prevails between them is called into question by a father who sees a
long range forecast of imminent doom if the earth does not rid itself of
evil in its vilest forms. This reviewer was put in mind of two other
films, Charles Laughton's Night of The Hunter (1955) and Robert
Mulligan's To Kill A Mockingbird (1962). Both films showcased the adult
world as seen through the eyes of children and the inevitable conclusions
that come out of them. Childhood is left, stripped bare of any
pretensions and they are cast adrift with no obvious port in sight.
Frailty is a superbly crafted film, shown in ways that become more
and more apparent as each frame escapes the reel. The cinematography by
Bill Butler is evocative and highly creative with a flair for showcasing
evil in shadows and light, that thrust precision and deftness in selected
combinations. The complexity of various scenes are smoothly transferred
with finesse and ease, and Butler's mastery shows in calculated strokes of
his camera and mind's eye, as moods are enhanced by the glow of a moon,
the beam of a flashlight, the dark of night and the glow of day.
Brian Tyler's score creates an undercurrent of necessary doom and gloom
and pervades throughout. Film music has become a critical part of any
production and when the director takes the time to consider it as part of
the equation, instead of as an afterthought, the result is usually a score
that hits the target squarely and without blame.
The screenplay by Brent Hanley is compact and he definitely knows his way
around the blocks of twists and turns that run concurrent throughout this production. He has conveyed a tale of a simple family subjected to a 180
degree turn, and in the process cast the audience into an Old Testament
style avenging tale.
Bill Paxton's first directorial effort is a brilliant one. He has that
extra something which an artist 'feels' and he evokes acting performances
that create an ambiance. Young Jeremy Sumpter and Matthew O'Leary are to
be commended for not acting like typical Hollywood child actors, with
O'Leary slightly edging Sumpter. Without O'Leary's complete believability
as a child thrust into a world not of his making, the film would fall
apart. Pair this with Paxton's, and you have a tag team that bounces
volleys off one another as the story unfolds to its ultimate conclusion.
Frailty is a film that stays with you and gets under your skin and just
when you think you have the mystery solved, you are led down another
avenue that looks unlike any you have seen before. Paxton has used little
precious screentime showing us the actual murders. Instead, we are shown
callousness and horror through the eyes of those most affected, and it
is definitely true that actions speak louder than words.
Frailty is representational of horror film noir; the rarefied air that
select films enter when feeling full of grace. See this little gem and
realize that good scripting, acting and directing need not cost a king's
ransom to hold our attention. We simply need to unlock the door and enter,
for a tale of woe and terror on an everyday footing.
Written by: Mary F. Sibley
Reviewers Rating: 8.5
Reader's Rating: 8.13
Reader's Votes: 14
Added: 7-Jun-2003
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
