Friday 4 May 2012

Bullhead Commentary

The Broadway Theatre is currently having its Dark Bridges Film Festival.  While most of the movies are horror, they do bring in some other genres as long as the movie is different than the mainstream.  I'm not sure why this film made it into the festival.  There is really nothing that sets it apart as different or "weird."  The only thing that really winds up being gripping or overly dramatic is the main plot point and scene of Jacky getting mutilated as a child and it was no worse than many events like that which we see in many darker dramas.  That's as descriptive as I'll go on that point because I don't want to spoil anything.  Basically the story is just another one of one man's tortuous journey through life as he deals with his personal demons.

And it doesn't grip the viewer really in any way.  It starts out very slow and takes a half hour to get to explaining anything about anyone's motivation.  The exposition is lacking throughout the movie and we are left too much to figure some things out on our own.  Furthermore, the plot point about Jacky's past is not integrated well into his current situation.  There are too many pieces brought together in a haphazard way and it just leads to out and out confusion for the viewer.

This is compounded by the fact that it isn't even a well made film apart from the story.  The lighting throughout is downright horrible.  It is actually very difficult to watch because everything is so dark.  The viewer has a hard time making out any emotions and body language of the characters resulting in even worse exposition.  Add that to the very slow pace of the movie and it just fails.  How this got nominated for an Oscar, I'll never understand.  I will give it some credit though.  Matthias Schoenaerts is very good as the anti-hero "Jacky."  He is convincing throughout.  But that's really the only upside.

Don't see it.  While it may have a few artistic merits, it just isn't worth the time.

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