Affliction (1997)
Country: US/CAN/JAP
Technical: col 114m
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, Willem Dafoe, Mary Beth Hurt
Synopsis:
A New Hampshire community police officer, his judgement clouded by toothache and a failed marriage, dreams up a murder conspiracy involving his best friend, his employer and a local businessman investing in real estate.
Review:
In a typically overheated performance, Nolte is the proverbial chip off the old block, the title alluding to the taint of violence that passes from generation to generation, Zola style. Unfortunately his performance is so enervating as to drain any vestige of empathy for his character's inability to make the right decision, even once, and Dafoe is something of a sideshow, for much of the time a disembodied narrator. Coburn bestrides the whole thing like a colossus, but could have delivered his Oscar-winning performance in his sleep. In short, there is much that is compelling here, but Schrader fails to bring either the pattern of tragedy or his indictment of American patriarchy to fruition.
Country: US/CAN/JAP
Technical: col 114m
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, Willem Dafoe, Mary Beth Hurt
Synopsis:
A New Hampshire community police officer, his judgement clouded by toothache and a failed marriage, dreams up a murder conspiracy involving his best friend, his employer and a local businessman investing in real estate.
Review:
In a typically overheated performance, Nolte is the proverbial chip off the old block, the title alluding to the taint of violence that passes from generation to generation, Zola style. Unfortunately his performance is so enervating as to drain any vestige of empathy for his character's inability to make the right decision, even once, and Dafoe is something of a sideshow, for much of the time a disembodied narrator. Coburn bestrides the whole thing like a colossus, but could have delivered his Oscar-winning performance in his sleep. In short, there is much that is compelling here, but Schrader fails to bring either the pattern of tragedy or his indictment of American patriarchy to fruition.
Country: US/CAN/JAP
Technical: col 114m
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, Willem Dafoe, Mary Beth Hurt
Synopsis:
A New Hampshire community police officer, his judgement clouded by toothache and a failed marriage, dreams up a murder conspiracy involving his best friend, his employer and a local businessman investing in real estate.
Review:
In a typically overheated performance, Nolte is the proverbial chip off the old block, the title alluding to the taint of violence that passes from generation to generation, Zola style. Unfortunately his performance is so enervating as to drain any vestige of empathy for his character's inability to make the right decision, even once, and Dafoe is something of a sideshow, for much of the time a disembodied narrator. Coburn bestrides the whole thing like a colossus, but could have delivered his Oscar-winning performance in his sleep. In short, there is much that is compelling here, but Schrader fails to bring either the pattern of tragedy or his indictment of American patriarchy to fruition.