Frailty

Frailty...2001...100 minutes...rated R...starring Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, and Matt O'Leary...written by Brent Hanley...directed by Bill Paxton

Fenton Meiks has come to the FBI, telling Agent Wesley Doyle that he believes his brother Adam to be a murderer that the press has come to call The God's Hand Killer, after some notes that Adam has left at the crime scenes.  What follows is a tale of how a middle American family in the late 70s came to be involved in a strange life of belief and murder, with Fenton trying to make the FBI agent understand what happened to Adam and how he could commit these crimes. But is Fenton all that he seems?

As I have been writing these little bits on various horror movies, I've been hit fairly hard with how subjective a thing horror is. What scares one person might make another person sneer, or laugh. Certainly a lot of movies that are out are also...or only... seen as disgusting, tasteless, offensive, and occasionally a waste of time and money. Still, my opinion on the genre is that part of its function for the viewer is to poke at those things that unsettle us; to hold up a dark mirror to our selves and our society and reveal those things that make us uncomfortable. Certainly gore and depictions of pain are uncomfortable, and often movies work simply on that physical level. I think that hitting on mental and emotional levels is a harder thing to accomplish, and again may only affect certain viewers, but those levels are sometimes more effective.

So what does all this musing have to do with "Frailty"? Simply put, the movie aims at an interesting but inflammatory spot in the cultural psyche...that line where faith becomes psychosis, and the level of trust a person can have in another when that person is Other-directed, as it were. We get a situation presented where the fundamentals of the main character's world are being tested...how far he's willing to go in the name of faith and love, and that point where he's supposed to stop and say "Wait, we've gone too far". But if that's an uncomfortable situation for a movie viewer, then the end of the movie goes right over the edge of reason.

I find this goal to be a lofty target, but I'm not sure the movie executed its intent that well. Some of the details are a bit distracting...I mean, I guess you might put your first name on your axe to mark it as your property, but if I see an axe with "Otis" on it my first thought is to wonder who names an axe. Also, I found some of the plot twists to either be telegraphed or a little overly contrived. By this statement, I'm really thinking of the ending...part of me just can't buy it. I'll admit that maybe I just don't want to buy into the ending, that it goes too far except as maybe a conceptual exercise. Still, I'll admit that in some ways it goes straight to the heart of the matter: the true question many of us would have about people we consider crazy or over the edge.

If "interesting" characterizations of faith overly disturb or offend you, I'd give this one a pass. On the other hand, if you want to see Matthew McConaughey at some of his crazy best, then be sure to give this selection a look.  Frailty gets 2.5 pairs of special gloves out of 5. (yes, that would be 5 gloves, but not a 5 rating)

Amendment: I don't like changing ratings that I've given...even if I think I may have been too hard or too soft on a film. But I have had some time to consider this review, and I really do think I was low on this rating. McConaughey and Paxton both give solid performances, and despite the fact that I still have a few reservations on the subject matter, this film has proven to be solid over time. So let's give this selection 3 gloves out of 5 instead. The inability to change one's mind could be considered evidence that I might not have one.  Dated 07/15/17