digital_signal_x

The entire budget of this credit card film was clearly spent on gunfire squibs and a single large warehouse.Bruce Willis is present obviously as a favor to someone, because it's clearly not as a paying gig.The plot is so plastic it does not warrant the respect of description Hard pass..

Since no one has commented on it, here's my two cents: I thought this film might be an interesting diversion from the norm, and was pretty disappointed. The entire presentation, from acting to camera work, comes across as an exercise put on by decent drama students. That the main character designs costumes for theater seems like an inside joke to that. The plot really doesn't gel with me, but perhaps men are just that stupid in New Zealand? It was a task to keep watching it, and I found myself only interested in the sexual overtones after the first half. There was a lot of potential for this film to be significantly better, but it just wasn't realized.

This film struck home for me on many levels. As the son of a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, I watched this film with rapt interest as it unfolded, and the faiths of Danny merge, overlap, and are torn. We see him as a young man in flashbacks constantly in the film, fighting the illogical tenants of his lineage, being drawn toward either believing blindly in the face of logic, or asserting a path of rejection and hate far easier. In a few brief scenes with his father, we see how the seeds of this discontent are sowed, a shut-in who is sick and bitter.

The love interest in this film is rather subdued, but serves as the catalyst for his ideals to finally square off at each other.

The dialog in the film is very well written, and thought provoking. It provides subtle and no so subtle metaphor for Jewish and Christian values all through the film, from adultery, violence, as well as many direct biblical references.

The use of different point of view flashbacks to the same scenes to show how he is feeling as the struggle unfolds is a masterful bit of cinematography, and provides a direct visual impression of his struggle rather then seeking it through dialog.

It's movies like this that keep me coming to off the beaten path video stores and outlets, I would never have had a chance to see such a masterpiece elsewhere.