Masterful Cinema

I'll tell you why so serious

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) is a complicated man. As a young father, he hangs his daughter out the window to force his wife Madylyn (Frances Conroy) to stay. He has a few weeks before retirement as the prison parole eligibility officer. One of his last cases is Gerald 'Stone' Creeson (Edward Norton). He's combative but also demanding to get out early. He gets his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) to seduce Mabry.De Niro and Norton get a couple of interesting characters to work with. This seems to be set up for some great acting and intense character drama. I do like the interactions between the two leads. Jovovich is able to keep up. It stumbles here and there. I don't really get the mishmash of religion in this. I think this could have been award winning performances if the movie is better written.

The Storyline, above, provides sufficient information to set the whole scenario for you. My comments will concentrate on the three essential characters - a ménage à trois, so to speak - who form the substance of this story. Here is Jack (De Nero), a parole officer nearing voluntary retirement; here is Stone (Norton), a convict nearing the end of his enforced retirement; and over there is Lucetta (Jovovich) nearing the end of her patience - waiting seven years for Stone's release from prison.At fade-in, we find out two crucial facts in two minutes or less: young Jack is prepared to commit the very worst kind of atrocity to keep his marriage, and his wife, Madylyn (Conroy) is an abused young woman wanting out of a dead marriage (see the first lines in Quotes, above).Forty years later, Jack is still an icy-calm control freak who's been listening to convicts' sob stories for too, too long; so much so, his face is set as though in stone. Jack never truly smiles; he probably doesn't know how. Sitting opposite Jack - literally and figuratively - we met Stone who wants - needs, so he says - parole because he has finally seen the light, the error of his ways. A stark contrast to Jack, Stone is too talkative, too inquiring, too hip, too jovial at times, too much in-your-face for Jack to take. The explicit script and perfect deliveries by both players are simply scintillating.The give and take between the two persists and enters a new and dangerous dimension when Lucetta sets about seducing Jack to grant the parole Stone needs and wants - in between her own sexual forays with other men. Faithful - to anybody - she is definitely not. What's more: Stone knows that and even warns Jack that "she's an alien". The slow-paced build-up of tension will annoy those who expect Psycho-like action and mystery. This is not schlock psychology; this is the plain truth about some people's real lives in anybody's town. About a disturbed, depressed and repressed Jack, all alone but married all his life, with a daughter and grandchild he never sees any more, as he struggles to rationalize all of his past sins - particularly during his eulogy at his brother's funeral - but psychologically incapable of facing his own dreadful, awful reality. Until it's too late. It's a tour de force of acting guaranteed to make many viewers squirm in their seats. Little wonder this movie bombed at box office.As a contrast, we see the young Stone gradually turning to malleable clay as he discovers and truly faces his own devils and decides to break with his past completely - the alien within as much as without viz. the shapely, sinuous and seductive Lucetta (and a great piece of acting by Vovovich). Throughout this story, the deliciously ironic snatches of day-time religious shows and interviews overlay the dichotomy of each of Jack's and Stone's search for ... redemption within themselves, if not with their god. One of them eventually succeeds.... Just how all that is shown I'll leave you - urge you - to see for yourself. The denouement between Jack and his wife is gut wrenching - and liberating. That between Jack and Stone - erstwhile master and slave - is precisely, exactly right.The rest of the cast is uniformly fitting and effective. The direction and editing are exemplary. Nine out of ten for this effort.

...well, this movie was waste of my time and waste of Edward Nortons talent. Categorized as "drama" and "thriller"? I would add new category for it : "boring as can be". Nothing happening, full of religious nonsense, you just hope for it to end. It's almost never that I force myself to turn off the movie before it ends but I have barely endured this one. Total, but really total waste of time. I have no idea who makes a movie like this, or even worse - who enjoys it? Robert De Niro is making some bad movies lately, right? I mean, OK, you can act depressed and guy with inner conflict but come on. What has become of once such a great actor? The only reason I am giving it 2 stars is Edward Nortons performance...and yeah - Millas appearance :),I'm just weak for her :)

Stone is nothing more than a bog standard,run of the mill film which has been done time & time again really once you've seen one film like this you've seen them all. The only saving grace for this film is Robert De Niro who out-acts every other person in this film,his talents are truly wasted with this script. Along side De Niro is Edward Norton an actor that to me has always been a poor & very overrated actor but in Stone he is surely at his worst where he plays an predictable character which has been seen in films for years,he plays a prisoner who is so unconvincing its painful. I'm not sure if it is Norton's poor acting or the abysmal script that makes the character Stone just so unbearable. The directing is another low point of this film, the directer John Curran is trying to be smart & clever with his directing of Stone but ultimately ends up with a disjointed mess where at times some of the scenes are just totally out of place. Lastly the religious meaning to the film & the attempts to be profound are so terribly forced its unreal.I give this film 5/10 which is very kind as the film itself is only worth a 3 but I've given it an extra 2 stars simply for De Niro's performance which simply carries this terrible film