Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Shattered (2007)

Director: Mike Barker                                      Writer: William Morrissey
Film Score: Robert Duncan                              Cinematography: Ashley Rowe
Starring: Gerard Butler, Maria Bello, Pierce Brosnan and Nicholas Lea

Sort of a cross between Ransom and The Game, at the end of the day there is so much riding on the final reveal that it’s difficult to know how to feel about it. Shattered begins with Gerard Butler as a high-powered advertising executive who is on a roll, making great presentations for his boss and cutting out his partners and leaving them with nothing. Then one night they hire a sitter while he and his wife leave together for separate destinations, and suddenly Pierce Brosnan pops up from the back seat of the car with a gun. He tells them that for the next twenty-four hours he’s god and they must do whatever he says or their daughter will die.

It’s a strange film to watch, because there’s a palpable sense that, even though Brosnan claims he has nothing to lose, he’s not really going to hurt anyone. Everything is set up in a way that is too pat, too precise and too deceptive. Ever since films like The Usual Suspects and The Game it seems much too obvious that everything can’t be what it seems, but of course Brosnan gives no motivation for his acts and so the audience has to wait until the end to figure it out. But that’s a problem. Who wants to wait until the end to know if you like a film or not? Because of that, opinions on how good the film is are going to vary widely.

The original title for the film was Butterfly on a Wheel, an allusion to Alexander Pope that has to do with disproportionate reaction. It’s similar to the question John Hale asks in The Crucible, to the effect that the monumental things that were going on couldn’t be simply because of something small. I like all of the principals a lot. Maria Bello was tremendous in David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, but the script here doesn’t allow her to seem as genuine. Gerard Butler, who has been so good in so many films, again, is working at a lower level here because the pace of the film doesn’t allow for real development of character. Brosnan, too, seems miscast, but then that is probably something he was purposely striving for, coming to this from his change of pace role in Seraphim Falls. Ultimately Shattered is an interesting thrill ride, but has a few flaws that prevent it from being really good, and of course how good it really is hinges on how much you like the ending.

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