Animal Kingdom is a film of great promise but it fails to truly satisfy. The film is 20-30 minutes too long, and it lacks a certain energy. The film's central performance by James Frecheville is fantastic, however the character he plays is so morose and uninteresting that towards the end of the 112 minute running time you just don't care what happens to him.
Certain plot machinations towards the end of the film are somewhat incoherent, and situations that could have yielded great moments are cut short or mishandled in favour of long, drawn out periods of exposition or superfluous characters. This said, special mention must be made of Joel Edgerton and Ben Mendelsohn for their first rate performances amongst a already stellar cast.
However it was still a well made film, and there's much to recommend it. It's just it didn't reach it's full potential, and there's no reason why it shouldn't have.
Certain plot machinations towards the end of the film are somewhat incoherent, and situations that could have yielded great moments are cut short or mishandled in favour of long, drawn out periods of exposition or superfluous characters. This said, special mention must be made of Joel Edgerton and Ben Mendelsohn for their first rate performances amongst a already stellar cast.
However it was still a well made film, and there's much to recommend it. It's just it didn't reach it's full potential, and there's no reason why it shouldn't have.