Oppressive Animal Kingdom an Obvious Crime
Joshua ‘J’ Cody’s (James Frecheville) mother has just died of an overdose. Not knowing where else to turn, he calls his grandmother Janine (Jacki Weaver) for help. She quickly rushes to his aid, telling the teen to pack his things as she’ll be there soon to take him away to her house.
Laura Wheelwright and James Frecheville in Animal Kingdom © Sony Pictures Classics
But there was a reason his mother, even though she was a barely functioning drug addict, felt compelled to get her boy away from Janine and the rest of her family. Brothers Barry (Joel Edgerton), Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) and Darren (Luke Ford) are nothing but a band of criminals, led around by their oldest and most dangerous sibling Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) as if they were pups longing for the mamma’s teats.
The cops have declared war on the Cody family and they’re not taking any prisoners leading to the death of one of the brothers. But when Pope leads the survivors on a mission of revenge things begin to spiral out of control, J suddenly caught right in the middle with his increasingly deranged uncle on one side and driven, if caring, police detective Leckie (Guy Pearce) on the other. Now the young man must decide where he resides within this human pride, and whether he be hunter or prey he better come to a conclusion fast or the life of his girlfriend Nicky (Laura Wheelwright) might be forfeit.
Writer and director David Michôd’s debut motion picture Animal Kingdom has been generating fairly strong buzz for quite some time. Most recently it was the Grand Jury Prize World Cinema winner at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. A lot of people have found its Shakespearean underworld dramatics to be both sensational and entertaining, leading many to believe this domestic release by Sony Pictures Classics could end up making some moderate waves (especially for an indie import) at the box office.
Apparently they all saw something completely different than I did, because for my part I found this criminal melodrama to be kind of a tough slog to sit through. While the acting is universally excellent, this film takes itself so beyond seriously it was almost as if Michôd was sitting right behind me in the theatre hitting me over the head with a sledgehammer. I felt beaten, battered and bruised by the time it was over, everything treated with such didactic solemnity as things progressed it became increasingly difficult to take any of it seriously.
I guess my biggest complaint is that there really wasn’t any question where all of this was going to head. While the filmmaker does his best to plant a few red herrings, overall there are only so many different directions for J to make his way towards. This is his story of survival, his tale if resilience, and knowing that was the case I had a pretty good idea of the decisions he was going to make long before the script ever came close to asking him about them.
It does not help that Michôd hammers every single scene home as if the weight of the world were upon them. Antony Partos’ (Garage Days) score is omnipresent at every turn, erasing all chances of subtlety or nuance if any actually existed within the script to begin with. Watching the film was like listening to an oppressive sermon, and even if one agrees with a statement here or a passage there none of that matters when the speech is delivered as if the fate of the planet rested upon the fervent enunciation of each syllable.
This doesn’t make the cast any less stupendous, Mendelsohn in particular painting a picture of such wickedly depraved evil Pope ranks as one of the top villains of the year. I also quite liked Edgerton in this, his performances both here and in The Square splendidly compelling. As for the rest, it is old pro Pearce who ends up making the most lasting impressions, Leckie’s final glance towards a departing J full of a haunting regret tinged with a great deal of tragic understanding.
I do believe that Michôd has talent. Visually this film is stunning, and his handling of actors is admittedly wonderful. He also knows how to generate suspense even if the ultimate outcome is hardly a surprise, one scene in a grocery store parking lot just towards the end of the first act a startlingly effective out of left field stunner that stopped my breath cold.
It’s the script and the tone of the piece where my problems lie. I felt like I’d scene this picture before, had the overriding sense that I knew where it was heading and how things would all play themselves out. Michôd takes it all so seriously that the clichés almost can’t help but become noticeable, and in spite of all the buzz to the contrary Animal Kingdom was a run around the criminal zoo that made me feel as caged and as trapped as the human mammals struggling to survive.
Film Rating: êê (out of 4)
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