Go backOur reviews service now comes with an RSS feed so click the icon and syndicate. 
Talote staff recommend lovefilm.com. So click and be happy!
|
8/8/2008
|
Harsh Times (2005)
|
Some films take a day or two to sink in, a while before all the things you’ve witnessed have been fully grasped and come to terms with. Harsh Times is one of these films. From the very beginning, you just know that it’s going to end badly, and you have to sit back and watch two peoples’ lives unravel. It’s a tough and uncompromising film, but an important one; a thought-provoking study of machismo, mental illness, male friendship, and relationships.
Christian Bale plays Jim Davis, an ex-soldier haunted by his experiences in the Gulf War. Freddy Rodríguez is his best friend Mike, a nice enough guy but a complete pushover where Jim is concerned. While Jim is anxious to be accepted into the LAPD so he can marry his Mexican girlfriend and bring her across the border, Mike is looking for any job he can find at the behest of his whiny girlfriend Sylvia (Eva Longoria). When the LAPD refuses Jim, he and Mike start hanging out. Sylvia believes that Jim is driving Mike around so he can drop off CVs, but really the pair are driving around drinking beer, smoking pot, catching up with mates and generally doing nothing productive.
The film is quite hard to get into, mainly because when Jim and Mike are together they talk like wannabe gangstas (Jim: “Damn, those are bad-ass kicks, dawg. You're lucky you got little bitch feet, or else I'd be stompin' around in them mother******s”), and it’s a little wearing to hear two respectable looking men in suits acting like they’re from the ghetto. Stick with it though, and you realize that this is the only way these two know how to communicate with each other; through a façade of macho bravado.
Jim in particular is arrogant and unpleasant, with a tendency toward violence. The things he did during the war have clearly affected him deeply and he seems incapable of behaving in a normal way, or holding onto the things he loves. His tenderness in his first scene with his girlfriend is so delicate and touching that it makes what happens later on even more difficult to watch. Jim is a man set to self-destruct and it takes Mike a while to realise that if he’s not careful, he’ll get dragged down with him.
I don’t want to give too much of the actual plot away, because there are unexpected twists and turns. The film is reminiscent of Training Day (which the director, David Ayer, wrote in 2001) but this is even more uncompromising in its portrayal of South Central Los Angeles and the lives that are lived there.
Unsurprisingly, given his character’s extreme nature, Christian Bale dominates the film. He throws himself so completely into the role of Jim that while you can never really warm to him, you sure as hell can’t take your eyes off him. In comparison, Freddy Rodríguez fails to make much of an impact, though his subtle performance is a welcome counterbalance to Bale’s intensity. Eva Longoria shows that she’s capable of more than the fluffy Desperate Housewives, but her character is really only there to moan at Mike about responsibility.
Overall, Harsh Times is a difficult viewing experience, but a rewarding one. You may not always like what you see, but you won’t forget it in a hurry.
Review by Catherine Leopold
|
|
Our Rating:
|
There are no votes for this films yet.
Please login to rate this film.
|
|
