Adam Collins posted on September 21, 2011 00:00
I have no feelings one way or the other as far as 1971’s original Straw Dogs from director Sam Peckinpah and actor Dustin Hoffman. I know some consider the original a classic. I know that is on Criterion Collection DVD, but so is Michael Bay’s Armageddon. If I am going to watch a Peckinpah film, I am going to go for The Wild Bunch every time.
The remake focuses on David Sumner (James Marsden), a Hollywood screenwriter, and his actress wife Amy (Kate Bosworth). They have recently moved to her family’s house in the Deep South. The locals all remember Amy, and are proud of her for making it in Hollywood. Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), an old high school boyfriend, is hired to re-roof their barn after a hurricane has done some damage. He and his three goons Norman, Chris and Bic are infatuated with Amy.
The town, like every stereotypical southern town, gets high on high school football. Ex-coach Tom (James Woods) has a fifteen year old daughter, Janice, who is the “girlfriend” of Jeremy (Dominic Purcell). Jeremy is slow. He is in the care of his brother Daniel (Walton Goggins). Tom can’t handle this relationship, nor should he have to, but he overreacts.
Now, the rest of the story follows the four obsessed roofers as they cannot contain themselves anymore, and try to find ways to split up David and Amy, both figuratively and literally. Jeremy and Janice’s relationship comes to a head Lennie Small fashion. The climax comes in the shape of the five guys getting drunk, trying to get into the Sumner house, to get to poor Jeremy because they believe he is the key to finding the missing Janice.
While this all sounds well and good, the movie fails to really make you care about any of the characters. Amy and David seem to almost hate each other. You want to feel bad for them, but you just can’t. You also want to feel bad for Tom. But he is an alcoholic hothead who has little-to-no fuse.
Rod Lurie writes and directs this half-hearted film. He has written some decent stuff in the past, like The Contender. He has directed decent films like The Last Castle. So, I know he could do better. He has a few tense shots in Straw Dogs. He also has a few artistic ones as well. The parallel hunting, home invasion scene is great. Yet, in the end, the movie missed the mark.
That could stem from the fact that, like IDKHSDI, the cast is largely television actors. Entourage, The Chicago Code, True Blood, Prison Break and Justified are represented. Not everyone can make the transition as well as George Clooney. The one decent performance comes from True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard. He does a fantastic job encompassing the good ol’ boy, ex-football star, stuck in the past manchild. His dark scenes are creepy. Other than him, the rest of the cast is just there. I am not a fan of Kate Bosworth to begin with, and this does nothing to change that. James Marsden should really just stick with comic book movies.
To list the differences between the original and the remake would take an entire article all together. The only real similarity is the fish out of water story. The remake really strives to focus on this, but it just seems like they tried too hard. This is billed as a suspense thriller. Straw Dogs’ half-assed attempt at both makes it almost boring. Then, its non-ending is just…
RATING 3/10