DEATH SENTENCE [R]
From the purveyors of the torture porn trilogy Saw and the writer of Death Wish (the 1974 revenge flick starring Charles Bronson that the world may have forgotten if not reminded of it in this movie’s marketing) comes this empty contemplation on the nature of violence. Center of the movie universe Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume, an Everyman whose life is torn up when his oldest son and golden boy is randomly murdered in a gang initiation ritual. When he learns that the young killer, played by Garrett Hedlund (Eragon), might be out in less than five years, he (oh, man…) takes justice into his own hands and dispatches the lad, an Old Testament style smoting that he develops a taste for. Director James Wan does not adequately chart Nick’s descent toward destruction, and the snuffing of the cardboard cutouts he lays waste to is no tragedy at all. The writing misses a lot of chances for poignancy, and is so on-the-nose that it borders stupid, and Bacon, despite his many gifts, appears to be looking for more direction that Wan is able to give him. The low-angle chase sequences look like they were shot by a maniacal dwarf of some kind, and the washed-out color is a tired gimmick that Wan’s professor should have punished him for in film school so that we would not have to suffer by it. David Cronenberg’s similar A History of Violence was also flawed, but was more thoughtful and engaging than this hollow mess set to radio-ready music. –David Meyer