With two such stars as Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt attached to the project, and a political hitch to the storyline involving the Ireland terrorism subplot, The Devil's Own seemed poised to be the year's most powerful and thought provoking, as well as probably very entertaining and income churning action film. Strangely enough, despite all of these advantages aiding the movie, and it still turned out to be just a step above what one could generously call terrible.
The Devil's Own sports every possible modern storytelling cliché, the worst being the families shown at home in domestic life, which might as well have been cut out of a magazine they are so clean cut and utterly devoid of any sort of believability or imagination. (the scene with Brad Pitt's character's family as a child is painfully awful, the most unbelievable portrait of an on screen family I have seen to date) It goes without saying that the horribly americanized perception of Ireland and Irish customs is downright insulting, as is often the case, but it seems so much more defined and offensive here.
Director Alan J. Pakula seems to be trying to make three different movies in one, and have absolutely no idea as to how to tie them together or maintain any sort of continuity or plot flow. The Ireland subplot is likely meant to provide motivation for Brad Pitt's IRA terrorist character, but seems completely at odds with the story of Harrison Ford's painfully stereotypical "troubled, world weary cop" character back in the States. The concept of the terrorist just by chance happening to go and stay at the house of the police officer who is hunting him down is just plain unbelievable, and doesn't come off as at all clever and ironic as the screenwriters intended it to be. Instead, it is groan worthy, as are most of the incredibly contrived "plot twists" and goings on in the story.
Even on the acting front, the shoddy storytelling comes across. Despite the two major action stars being lined up, both give completely unremarkable and even downright bad performances, and there is the constant storytelling conflict as to which of them is the main character, as if the writers themselves could not decide as to which character was meant to be the protagonist. The rumour that Pitt had serious conflicts of interest with the director and script and in fact tried to dissociate himself with the film shines clear, as he seems to put next to no effort into his performance (his Irish accent is cringe worthy, one of the worst attempted accents in film history to date, which is ironic considering his hilarious performance as an Irish Gypsy in "Snatch" 3 years later) as if he just wanted to film his scenes and leave. One can't blame him, as it seems he was the only one in the whole film who seemed to understand how badly the film was turning out to be.
But Ford, the other bankable action star seems to at least be putting some effort into a believable character, but his policeman character seems so dull and uninspired that we as an audience find it completely impossible to empathize with him in any way. The supporting characters seem to be extras rented off the street for all the acting experience they seem to have at all, and most supporting characters seem barely necessary for the progression of the horribly weak storyline at all. (one still wonders at the end what was the point of including Natascha McElhone's character - a potential love interest for Brad Pitt left half written perhaps?) It's just another front on which the movie demonstrates how little substance there is to it at all, and how weak and clichéd it really is.
Overall, it seems fair to say that you should not consider The Devil's Own exactly recommended - not to those who would rather enjoy themselves watching a movie anyway. For those who have a preference for weak, extremely poorly and disjointedly written scripts with completely archetypal characters, lazy and absent minded directing and even some good old fashioned bad acting, you have found your movie. But there are so many other suspense thrillers out there, superior in almost every aspect, so when looking for an enjoyable movie to rent, it would not seem at all presumptuous to pass on The Devil's Own, leaving it to fall back into the domain of poor movie hell in which it belongs.
-3/10
The Devil's Own sports every possible modern storytelling cliché, the worst being the families shown at home in domestic life, which might as well have been cut out of a magazine they are so clean cut and utterly devoid of any sort of believability or imagination. (the scene with Brad Pitt's character's family as a child is painfully awful, the most unbelievable portrait of an on screen family I have seen to date) It goes without saying that the horribly americanized perception of Ireland and Irish customs is downright insulting, as is often the case, but it seems so much more defined and offensive here.
Director Alan J. Pakula seems to be trying to make three different movies in one, and have absolutely no idea as to how to tie them together or maintain any sort of continuity or plot flow. The Ireland subplot is likely meant to provide motivation for Brad Pitt's IRA terrorist character, but seems completely at odds with the story of Harrison Ford's painfully stereotypical "troubled, world weary cop" character back in the States. The concept of the terrorist just by chance happening to go and stay at the house of the police officer who is hunting him down is just plain unbelievable, and doesn't come off as at all clever and ironic as the screenwriters intended it to be. Instead, it is groan worthy, as are most of the incredibly contrived "plot twists" and goings on in the story.
Even on the acting front, the shoddy storytelling comes across. Despite the two major action stars being lined up, both give completely unremarkable and even downright bad performances, and there is the constant storytelling conflict as to which of them is the main character, as if the writers themselves could not decide as to which character was meant to be the protagonist. The rumour that Pitt had serious conflicts of interest with the director and script and in fact tried to dissociate himself with the film shines clear, as he seems to put next to no effort into his performance (his Irish accent is cringe worthy, one of the worst attempted accents in film history to date, which is ironic considering his hilarious performance as an Irish Gypsy in "Snatch" 3 years later) as if he just wanted to film his scenes and leave. One can't blame him, as it seems he was the only one in the whole film who seemed to understand how badly the film was turning out to be.
But Ford, the other bankable action star seems to at least be putting some effort into a believable character, but his policeman character seems so dull and uninspired that we as an audience find it completely impossible to empathize with him in any way. The supporting characters seem to be extras rented off the street for all the acting experience they seem to have at all, and most supporting characters seem barely necessary for the progression of the horribly weak storyline at all. (one still wonders at the end what was the point of including Natascha McElhone's character - a potential love interest for Brad Pitt left half written perhaps?) It's just another front on which the movie demonstrates how little substance there is to it at all, and how weak and clichéd it really is.
Overall, it seems fair to say that you should not consider The Devil's Own exactly recommended - not to those who would rather enjoy themselves watching a movie anyway. For those who have a preference for weak, extremely poorly and disjointedly written scripts with completely archetypal characters, lazy and absent minded directing and even some good old fashioned bad acting, you have found your movie. But there are so many other suspense thrillers out there, superior in almost every aspect, so when looking for an enjoyable movie to rent, it would not seem at all presumptuous to pass on The Devil's Own, leaving it to fall back into the domain of poor movie hell in which it belongs.
-3/10