War Zone

Tom (Freddie Cunliffe) is bitter at the family being moved from London to rural Devon. His dad (Ray Winstone) crashes the car taking his pregnant mum (Tilda Swinton) to the hospital. She has a baby girl. Tom accuses his older sister Jessie (Lara Belmont) of having sex with their father which she denies. Colin Farrell plays local boy Nick who takes a fancy to Jessie.

This is a dark disturbing story of incest and the conflicting blame that occurs. It's Tim Roth's directorial debut. He tries to make this a quiet moody film. The extended desolate landscape scenes are fine but I don't like quietly waiting for the actors to speak. I also don't like the Tom character although I grow to accept him. I'm not impressed with Cunliffe's performance but it could very well be his character. On the other hand, Lara Belmont is compelling. The final act is terrific with Ray Winstone acting up a storm. On a side note, Farrell's role is rather small. This is a disturbing compelling movie despite a slow start.

Whew. At a loss for words. You really feel like your gut has been ripped out after watching this truly sad story. Lara Belmont definitely deserves some kind of award for this; her role of Jessie, the sexually abused daughter is amazing. I didn't know who to feel sorry for most, Jessie, her brother, or the mother.

The love between brother and sister through this dilemma is tear jerking. Rarely has a movie caught such realism in the expression of utter despair and hopelessness. My desire to reach through the screen and strangle the father was outweighed only by my desire to hug the daughter, and root for the brother. It's hard to believe this actually happens for real, but unfortunately the reality is, it does. I think part of the "penalty" for such a horrible thing as incest and child abuse is to watch "The War Zone".

The cinematography is outstanding and serves as almost a beautiful counterbalance to the main story's theme. I guess it takes some of the best scenery in the world to help balance _that_ out.

This film easily gets a 10, and deserves every bit of it.

Strange, opaque and deeply unsettling, the War Zone is the only way a film about a topic as horrifying as incest should be. Tim Roth, realizing that the family of the film is too far gone to elicit much empathy from the audience, simply tries to convey the story as truthfully as possible. With crushing results.

At the beginning of the film, we're introduced to a nameless clan: a genial father (Ray Winstone), a mother exhausted from recently giving birth (Tilda Swinton), a sullen teenage boy (Freddie Cunliffe), and his strikingly beautiful older sister (Lara Belmont). All four have recently moved from London to the remote, seaside village of Devon, leaving the two kids feeling isolated and adrift.

What follows for the next hour or so is a brilliantly confusing experience--Roth presents a series of odd quirks about the family that makes the audience question what is merely eccentricity and what hints at something darker. Why, for example, does the family walk around naked most of the time? Don't those siblings seem slightly too "affectionate" given that they're teenagers? What exactly does the boy see his father doing with his sister in the bathroom that bothers him so? All of this mystery leads up to an absolutely harrowing scene which leaves no mystery as to the dynamic between father and daughter. More emotionally explicit than physically so, the scene is rightfully regarded as one of cinema's more horrible acts of on-screen violence, yet doesn't feel gratuitous in the slightest.

This film is as sparse as possible, with almost no inflection or melodramatic effects. Scenes are generally shot in long takes with a static camera (gorgeously framed in widescreen). There is little excess dialogue, and almost no music. Often we are placed into the middle of confusing scenes that are open to numerous interpretations. We more or less have to come to our own conclusions about what is going on. The teenagers are as inexpressive and introspective as teenagers in real life, which makes there unexpected emotional outbursts all the more powerful.

Why Roth hasn't made any other films is beyond me. He has a lean, cinematic sensibility which is unmatched by any other actor-director. I hope he gets an opportunity to use it again soon.

Well yes this film does portray a rather taboo subject, probably the first one I have seen with incest in. But my god this is a great film. All of the actors are incredible, Ray Winstone is a fine actor and so are the two children, the boy Tom is excellent, when he finds out what his dad is doing he is completely cold to him, what he does to him at the end of the movie is understandable.

This is a very gritty film quite slow as well but it needs to be I think to give a harsh account of the family. The scene of the actual incest will be very disturbing for some, their is quite a lot of nudity in this film from most of the actors, also there is a lot of swearing ad violence too.

I think this film is harrowing at first but after all things like this happen in real life and I think Tim Roth has done a great job of portraying a touchy subject to film.

A young family moves from London to a remote country house. The young son suspects that his sister and his father's relationship is more than it should be. As he looks more and more into it he finds a sinister element that his mother does not see.

This was Tim Roth's directorial debut and he certainly wasn't looking for a popcorn hit. The story by Alexander Stuart from his own novel is very slow and deliberate but is ruthlessly effective. At first the whole family seems to have a strange sexual edge to it - the mother breast feeds in full view, the teenage brother and sister lie naked in front of each other etc. It gives things a strange feel but it's quickly forgotten when you get used to it. The guts of the story revolves around the father's sexual abuse of his daughter Jessie, who no longer fights but accepts it as part of her life. Some of the scenes - in particular ‘the scene' - are too hard to watch and the whole thing is very powerful. The film develops slowly and does not allow the father to be a monster-type (the British media have a habit of demonising people rather than taking objective views). Here the film doesn't let him become a caricature even when his crimes come to light.

The cast are roundly brilliant. Winston plays it perfectly all the way and doesn't take the `monster' route. Freddie Cunliffe is excellent as Tom - although all he has to do is mope around the place. Lara Belmont is outstanding - this must have been so difficult to play but she is absolutely excellent throughout. Swinton is good as the mother, but her character is not well used or developed.

Overall it's very hard to watch. Roth's direction is a little too clever but is very good generally. A powerful story very well told - but it may not be to everyone's liking.