TORONTO -- "The Proposition" is a fascinating, mythological western set in the hot, dusty, fly-infested desolation of the Australian Outback of the 1880s. The violence of the landscape reflects the violence of the savage men, who roam this frontier devoid of civilization and of God. The film is the creation of music icon Nick Cape, who wrote the script and composed much of the music, and director John Hillcoat, a top music video director who made his feature debut with "Ghosts...of the Civil Dead" in 1988. The film deals with morally compromised characters, who fight against but finally yield to destinies over which they have no control.
The film's bloodiness, both suggested and depicted, could limit its appeal. But a western, especially an Australian one, may just seem new again to audiences. That and an outstanding cast, which includes Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson and William Hurt could lead to international boxoffice strength.
The story takes place in the aftermath of an outrageous act of violence. The perpetrators are a gang of ruthless bushrangers lead by three Irish brothers named Burns, who see all English and all law officers as their enemy. But the slaughter has so horrified Charlie Burns (Pearce) that he quits the gang in order to protect his mentally fragile and innocent brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) from their psychotic older brother Arthur (Huston).
In a furious gunfight, Capt. Stanley (Winstone), an English policeman brought to the Outback to "civilize this land," captures the two brothers. Knowing he will never be able to track down Arthur in his hiding place in the badlands, the captain makes an despicable proposition to Charlie: To save Mikey from the gallows, he must track down and kill Arthur.
As Charlie heads into the unforgiving desert, the story splits in two to witness what happens to both men. In town, locals are enraged to learn that Stanley released a killer he had in custody. His superior, Fletcher (David Wenham), not only pressures Stanley to do something about the renegade Aborigines, but incites a mob into flogging Mikey nearly to death, which dooms the proposition.
Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to shield his innocent wife Martha Watson) from the harsh realities of this brutal land. Mostly, he wants to keep from her the truth about what happened to her friend during the Burns gang's slaughter.
In the desert, Charlie is attacked and wounded by Aborigines but saved by Arthur, who takes Charlie to his hideout. A bounty hunter (Hurt) nearly captures the entire gang before Arthur again saves his brother. When Charlie finally tells Arthur that Mikey will be hung, the gang rides back to town for a showdown.
Cave's story unfolds with the unmistakable rhythms of a tragedy foretold: Characters advance toward destinies they cannot avoid. Given these people and these circumstances, things are inevitable.
The actors make the most of these juicy roles. Pearce plays things close to his chest, unwilling to show his hand until the last moment, yet grim certitude is writ large on his face. Huston is a larger-than-life figure, a villain of Shakespearian proportions, who glories in blood and needs his enemies as much as his friends. He is a man unhinged long ago by the desert and English oppression.
Winstone unravels shockingly when he comes to realize the untenable nature of this predicament of his own choosing. Long accustomed to separating his humanity, represented by his wife and home, from the authoritarian nature of his job of knocking heads and working with sadists, he falls apart when that division falls apart.
Watson brightens a fairly minor role as a woman who discovers her backbone in this cruel frontier.
Benoit Delhomme's cinematography makes one feel the heat and oppression of the environment. The music by Cave and Warren Ellis has a haunting edge that isn't quite western or blues or period music but a beautiful, original work that supports the action yet stands completely on its own.
THE PROPOSITION
U.K. Film Council presents a Surefire production of an Autonomous and Jackie O Prods. production
Credits:
Director: John Hillcoat
Writer: Nick Cave
Producers: Chiara Menage, Cat Villiers
Executive producers: Sara Giles, Michael Hamlyn, Chris Auty, Norman Humphrey, James Atherton, Michael Henry, Robert Jones
Director of photography: Benoit Delhomme
Production designer: Chris Kennedy
Costumes: Margot Wilson
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Editor: Jon Gregory
Cast:
Charlie: Guy Pearce
Captain Stanley: Ray Winstone
Arthur: Danny Huston
Jellon Lamb: John Hurt
Fletcher: David Wenham
Martha: Emily Watson
Stoat: Tom Budge
Mikey: Richard Wilson
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film's bloodiness, both suggested and depicted, could limit its appeal. But a western, especially an Australian one, may just seem new again to audiences. That and an outstanding cast, which includes Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson and William Hurt could lead to international boxoffice strength.
The story takes place in the aftermath of an outrageous act of violence. The perpetrators are a gang of ruthless bushrangers lead by three Irish brothers named Burns, who see all English and all law officers as their enemy. But the slaughter has so horrified Charlie Burns (Pearce) that he quits the gang in order to protect his mentally fragile and innocent brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) from their psychotic older brother Arthur (Huston).
In a furious gunfight, Capt. Stanley (Winstone), an English policeman brought to the Outback to "civilize this land," captures the two brothers. Knowing he will never be able to track down Arthur in his hiding place in the badlands, the captain makes an despicable proposition to Charlie: To save Mikey from the gallows, he must track down and kill Arthur.
As Charlie heads into the unforgiving desert, the story splits in two to witness what happens to both men. In town, locals are enraged to learn that Stanley released a killer he had in custody. His superior, Fletcher (David Wenham), not only pressures Stanley to do something about the renegade Aborigines, but incites a mob into flogging Mikey nearly to death, which dooms the proposition.
Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to shield his innocent wife Martha Watson) from the harsh realities of this brutal land. Mostly, he wants to keep from her the truth about what happened to her friend during the Burns gang's slaughter.
In the desert, Charlie is attacked and wounded by Aborigines but saved by Arthur, who takes Charlie to his hideout. A bounty hunter (Hurt) nearly captures the entire gang before Arthur again saves his brother. When Charlie finally tells Arthur that Mikey will be hung, the gang rides back to town for a showdown.
Cave's story unfolds with the unmistakable rhythms of a tragedy foretold: Characters advance toward destinies they cannot avoid. Given these people and these circumstances, things are inevitable.
The actors make the most of these juicy roles. Pearce plays things close to his chest, unwilling to show his hand until the last moment, yet grim certitude is writ large on his face. Huston is a larger-than-life figure, a villain of Shakespearian proportions, who glories in blood and needs his enemies as much as his friends. He is a man unhinged long ago by the desert and English oppression.
Winstone unravels shockingly when he comes to realize the untenable nature of this predicament of his own choosing. Long accustomed to separating his humanity, represented by his wife and home, from the authoritarian nature of his job of knocking heads and working with sadists, he falls apart when that division falls apart.
Watson brightens a fairly minor role as a woman who discovers her backbone in this cruel frontier.
Benoit Delhomme's cinematography makes one feel the heat and oppression of the environment. The music by Cave and Warren Ellis has a haunting edge that isn't quite western or blues or period music but a beautiful, original work that supports the action yet stands completely on its own.
THE PROPOSITION
U.K. Film Council presents a Surefire production of an Autonomous and Jackie O Prods. production
Credits:
Director: John Hillcoat
Writer: Nick Cave
Producers: Chiara Menage, Cat Villiers
Executive producers: Sara Giles, Michael Hamlyn, Chris Auty, Norman Humphrey, James Atherton, Michael Henry, Robert Jones
Director of photography: Benoit Delhomme
Production designer: Chris Kennedy
Costumes: Margot Wilson
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Editor: Jon Gregory
Cast:
Charlie: Guy Pearce
Captain Stanley: Ray Winstone
Arthur: Danny Huston
Jellon Lamb: John Hurt
Fletcher: David Wenham
Martha: Emily Watson
Stoat: Tom Budge
Mikey: Richard Wilson
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/12/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screened
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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