Film Review #4: Straw Dogs

     I realize I've been neglecting this blog as of late, what with no posts in the last 11 days. But as a thank you for being so patient with me expect lots of film reviews from now until the end of the weekend. So let's get things started with a review of the remake of a 1971 thriller called Straw Dogs.

     Straw Dogs tells the story of a big city couple (Husband, James Marsden, is a Hollywood Screenwriter and Wife, Kate Bosworth, is a TV Actress) going back to Bosworth's hometown in the deep south after they purchased her deceased father's farmland. Things then go awry when they hire Bosworth's high school boyfriend Charlie, played by Alexander Skarsgard of Tru Blood fame, to fix the roof of the farms barn.

     Now I've never seen the original "Straw Dogs" but I do not need to see the original to know that James Marsden is no Dustin Hoffman (Those terrible Focker movies aside) and nothing needs to be said about Kate Bosworths involvement in this film, now I was a fan of Bosworth's acting in the early 00's, back before Superman Returns and when she weighed more than 12 pounds, but she's done nothing of note since 2008's 21, which was minor involvement at best.

     Skarsgard was a surprise to me, now having a penis and all I can't say I've seen much of True Blood (in fact I've seen next to nothing of it) but in my opinion Skarsgard's character was the center of this movie, and more or less the only well thought out and played character.

     Apart from Skarsgard the only other thing that was impressive about this movie is the way the director Rod Lurie used football and hunting as backdrops to the violent behaviour being exhibited by the residents of Blackwater, Mississippi. For every shot deer you see, you imagine a drunken James Woods beating a man senseless in a bar, for every bone crunching football tackle you think back to the brutal rape scene witnessed only minutes before.

     Overall this film does seem unsure on whether it wants to be a thinking man's film or an exciting thriller, hence why you get the impression the film is taking an anti-violence stance but then it litters the screen with gunshots, nails, and slit throats.

     Now as mentioned there wasn't a lot to like in this film, but that doesn't mean it is necessarily a bad film, sure the beginning drags (for a long time) and the cast and visuals are less than stellar but overall it was a decent film, worth a watch eventually, but not something that needs to be rushed. Which apparently most agree with given the poor box office numbers this past weekend (apparently I was one of 24 people to go see it!)

     So yeah, everyone has a breaking point... But what is Straw Dogs'?