I recommend this film highly, not sure why all the hate. There are good performances and it touches on something which exists in our society today, whether people choose to see the reality or not.
Cary Elwes is a photojournalist who lives in NYC and is on the verge of being evicted. He lives with a daughter and is estranged from his wife. The film starts as he drops his daughter off to be with her mother. He has a golden retriever named "Mao".
We see flashbacks of an earlier pivotal incident which involves Brian Cox (always excellent, look for him in "Manhunter" and "The Minus Man" with Mercedes Ruehl and Owen Wilson as a serial killer).
Cox is an evangelical preacher, preaching hate, and that change in America can start with "just one match" and other such comments, along the lines of David Duke. His wife is Andie McDowell, and she has a son who we now see in NYC is 18 years old. He and his mother survived the attack but "an eye for eye" dictates they must now avenge the violence, and death of their religious leader.
I will not divulge the outcome but the theme here is interesting. Frank Whaley also belongs to this religious group and in NYC he tells Elwes "I was saved in prison my leader, he was a good man". He is a zealot, but resents anyone in New York who isn't "like him". He berates the local the news stand owner, "this city is "filled with foreigners" he remarks ignorantly.
McDowell is surprisingly good here, a southern woman with values about to be toppled, she has survived the horror of third degree burns over most of her body.
The director and writer have ventured into territory which is real here. Preaching hatred and violence leads to nothing, but death. Whether you are in New York City or Alabama.9/10.
Cary Elwes is a photojournalist who lives in NYC and is on the verge of being evicted. He lives with a daughter and is estranged from his wife. The film starts as he drops his daughter off to be with her mother. He has a golden retriever named "Mao".
We see flashbacks of an earlier pivotal incident which involves Brian Cox (always excellent, look for him in "Manhunter" and "The Minus Man" with Mercedes Ruehl and Owen Wilson as a serial killer).
Cox is an evangelical preacher, preaching hate, and that change in America can start with "just one match" and other such comments, along the lines of David Duke. His wife is Andie McDowell, and she has a son who we now see in NYC is 18 years old. He and his mother survived the attack but "an eye for eye" dictates they must now avenge the violence, and death of their religious leader.
I will not divulge the outcome but the theme here is interesting. Frank Whaley also belongs to this religious group and in NYC he tells Elwes "I was saved in prison my leader, he was a good man". He is a zealot, but resents anyone in New York who isn't "like him". He berates the local the news stand owner, "this city is "filled with foreigners" he remarks ignorantly.
McDowell is surprisingly good here, a southern woman with values about to be toppled, she has survived the horror of third degree burns over most of her body.
The director and writer have ventured into territory which is real here. Preaching hatred and violence leads to nothing, but death. Whether you are in New York City or Alabama.9/10.