Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
4/5/07
I have a weakness for Theological
thrillers: not because of any particular religious bent, but because
it's interesting to watch characters forced to confront as real things
they'd been certain existed (if at all) only on some metaphysical plane.
While The Reaping isn't as Scripture-focused as, say, the Left
Behind series, it uses the ten plagues of the Old Testament as a hook
for an intriguing game of “What do you believe?” and “How can you be sure?”
At heart, it's a Twist Movie, but the twist is awfully good and flows more
organically from the subject matter than you'd expect, even moments before
it's revealed.
A traumatic experience (believe
me, it's pretty traumatic...) while serving as a Missionary has caused
Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank) to turn away from God and toward science.
She now specializes in debunking “miracles” reported around the world with
Perfectly Rational Explanations. Her latest task comes to her from
Doug (David Morrissey), a science teacher in the small town of Haven, Louisiana.
Following the death of a local boy, the river where his body was found
has turned red. Blood red. While Katherine and her assistant
Ben (Idris Elba) collect samples, frogs start falling from the sky.
Then come the flies, and the diseased livestock. The townspeople
are certain of two things: these are plagues sent by God, and they're
punishment for the deeds of the boy's family, reputed Satan worshipers
who live outside of town. They're particularly fixated on his creepy
mute sister, Loren (AnnaSophia Robb). It's all Katherine can do to
hold the lynch mob back, but with all signs pointing toward an ancient
prophecy predicting a child who'll serve as a vessel for Satan, is saving
the girl really the right choice?
After a busy 90's career
directing good, large-scale movies (like Judgment Night and The
Ghost and the Darkness) that never seemed to click with audiences,
Stephen Hopkins has been in TV exile (his work on early episodes defined
the look of 24) for almost a decade. It's nice to see him
back: The Reaping looks great and has a wonderful sense of
creepy atmosphere. I particularly liked the way he allows disturbing
things to go on all over the frame without having characters notice them
or pointing them out with the score (shadows outside a car window in one
scene and the image on Katherine's laptop in another were my favorites).
The one thing that I really didn't like about the movie is the currently
fashionable use of dream sequences both for exposition and shocks.
When poor Katherine finds herself bolting upright in bed waking up from
a dream and then doing it again to find that was a dream too, you
know the device is being seriously overused. Given how many times
the movie's release date has been pushed back (it was originally due last
August), I wonder how much of this was by design and how much was “It's
not scary enough, get more people waking up from dreams in there!” re-editing.
Swank is very good, once
again this year (after Freedom Writers)
showing star power that had previous eluded her. The story hinges
entirely on us following along with how Katherine is processing everything
that's happening around her, and the actress does a great job letting us
in. Robb is nicely creepy and Morrissey and Elba do what the script
expects of them very well (I'd say more, but I really shouldn't...).
There are a lot of good performances from the Haven townspeople, who take
what must read on the page as silly Southern stereotypes and breathe just
enough life into them to keep things rolling.
*****KINDA SPOILER ALERT*****READ
NO FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT HINTS TO THE ENDING*****
OK, you've been warned.
Another thing I really liked about the movie is how it's willing to make
itself look bad to help sell its' climactic revelations. Loren is
presented as a monstrous caricature of feminine puberty, and for a while
I was pretty uncomfortable with the unsubtle metaphorical significance
of that ever-present trail of blood leading down her leg. But once
all the cards are on the table, I enjoyed the way the movie had played
with my perceptions in the same way other characters had played with Katherine's.
Overall, it's very clever how the film pretends to be one kind of horror
movie before revealing that it's actually another. The climactic
surprises, as well as the Raiders of the Lost Ark-like fire and
brimstone finale, succeed in making the whole movie better than it had
seemed up until that time. But then, aren't all twist movies really
defined by how well the twist goes over?
*****END OF KINDA SPOILERS*****
The Reaping succeeds
at most of what it sets out to do: it's creepy and atmospheric throughout,
and even though the story seems to drift from time to time, the final surprises
pull everything back into order. And if, like me, you find the subject
matter intriguing, it provides food for imagination right up to the final
shot. |
