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Fierce People (2005)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Fierce People. Feature film. (2005, 107 mins) IMDB

...a far too predictable filme...

W

here do people get the notion that being eccentric is interesting? It may be interesting in itself for a few seconds, but it wears, after which point there had better be something happening to the characters or we'll get bored. But that's not enough, because we have to care about the characters and I never cared about the characters in this film.

Diane Lane plays a single mother living in a small, run-down apartment in NYC. She's a masseuse, sort of, because she screws just about anyone who shows up at her door, does drugs and drinks to excess. Her adolescent son lives with her and just accepts that her mother is screwed up.

Here comes the inciting incident. A very rich dude wants her to live and work for him as his personal masseuse and in a flash, the two of them pack up and head to this giant estate out in the country.

What follows really doesn't matter as it's not interesting. Truly. It's also extremely predictable.

The patriarch (Sutherland) takes care of his kingdom. Whatever wives he had have left with a boat load of money. His daughter (Perkins), the lush, lives with him. There's the two grandchildren and various maids and servants and all the rich neighbours.

There are so many characters we don't have a lot of time to get to know them. They come in for a scene or two and are gone. Plus we don't care because they don't do anything.

Somehow I think the filmmakers viewed this story as an indictment of the rich, but it doesn't go very far. We known the rich get away with murder. That's hardly news.

If it's meant to be a satire, it didn't strike any notes.

This film muddles along in a predictable way and when it's over we're thankful.

Posted 2009/04/29 at 20h47ET in Movie Commentary.

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