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Sleepwalking.”> EnlargeOverture FilmsWide awake in America: Charlize Theron and Nick Stahl in Sleepwalking.
By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY Here’s a quick peek at three other films that are opening this weekend in the nation’s theaters:
Funny Games
So sadistic and disturbing, Games (* 1/2 out of four) is easily the toughest movie to sit through since 1994’s Natural Born Killers. Lured in to search out forward the discreet terrors of the bourgeoisie, viewers don’t just watch — they viscerally recoil.
We are made to watch the mental and physical torture of a family (played by Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Devon Gearhart as their 10-year-old son) by preppy psychos clad in tennis whites (Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet). The film lacks character development and motivation or more sense of psychological examination of the casual cruelty inflicted by the pair. The family’s only wrong: that they are moneyed and own a lakefront holidays home that is relatively remote.
It’s a sick and twisted anything disclosed intended to provoke and disturb. Austrian writer/director Michael Haneke, who adapted this from his 1997 German-language film, has said it’s a commentary on how violence is made consumable in American movies, swallowed easily by naive audiences. It’s an interesting rationale, but what he puts on the screen feels much more exploitative than reflective. While Haneke is attacking our culture for being drawn to violent fare, he is also relishing in presenting it to us, in prolonged and detailed fashion.
The audience feels like a co-conspirator in this sadomasochistic excursion into extreme cruelty. One can’t help but leave the theater angry to have wasted time on this despicable, conscience-free exercise in pointless horror. (In select cities; R for terror, violence and some language; 1 hour, 47 minutes)
Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking (* *) is more like sleep-inducing, save for the antics of one absurdly one-dimensional character.
Portentous and dull, the film features one of the worst over-the-top performances by Dennis Hopper, who plays an abusive father. His role upends what could bear been a mildly entertaining race drama.
Eleven-year-old Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) is abandoned by her flaky mother, Joleen (Charlize Theron). After dropping the girl off with her n’er-do-well, uncle James (Nick Stahl), Joleen takes off during the term of parts enigmatical. Eventually Tara is sent to live in a foster home.
When James visits to drop off a birthday gift, he makes an impulsive decision. Responding to Tara’s entreaties, they strike the highway, hoping to escape their depressing lives. But they end up at the dilapidated farmhouse of James and Joleen’s awful father (Hopper).
Several plot points are unconvincing. Even with Amber Alert signs on the highway, the pair remain on the lam for longer than seems plausible. And Joleen suddenly returns, with no explanations as to where she went, why she took off or why she came back.
The best scenes are the bonding moments between James and Tara. Stahl and Robb give fine, low-key performances.
There is much barrenness in the visuals, mood and characters’ lives, and scenes display in a predictably bleak fashion. Though we’re supposed to feel some hope at the possibility of facing down one’s demons, the message is buried in the murk. (In select cities; R for language and a scene of violence; 1 hour, 40 minutes)
Doomsday(not screened for critics)
In this thriller from writer/director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers), a country has been quarantined after a destructive virus, and three decades later, the “Reaper Virus” surfaces in another city. Specialists, led by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), are sent into the quarantined area to find a cure. They must search through a land filled with horror and mayhem. (Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexual content/nudity; 1 hour, 45 minutes)
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