RAVENOUS
** (out of 4) - a fair movie
Release Date: March 19, 1999 Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffrey Jones, John Spencer, Neal McDonough, David Arquette, Stephen Spinella Directed by: Antonia Bird Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Films Corp. MPAA Rating: R (considerable gore, strong violence) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reveiws/1999/ravenous.htm
There's a certain taboo about the subject of cannibalism, and even those most accustomed to eating red meat find thoughts of human flesh as sustenance most disgusting. And so their ought to be something truly frightening in Antonia Bird's latest film, RAVENOUS. Instead, the director of 1994's PRIEST crafts a stylishly goofy film; a film that manages to stumble through its running time without creating substantial success or error. Largely, though, RAVENOUS is simply too extreme for any mainstream audience.
The story even starts out extreme. The audience meets John Boyd (Guy Pearce), a US Army captain rewarded for bravery in the line of duty but terribly squeamish. As it turns out, his supposed valor was nothing more than luck, and as such he's sent to distant Fort Spencer, California, where he'll be out of the Army's way. Fort Spencer is a prosperous way station during the summer but a ghost town during the winter, and as Boyd shows up on the eve of a great snowfall he meets the skeleton crew assigned to the post during the down months. Headed up by a man named a cynical nice guy named Hart (Jeffrey Jones), it seems the place is one of tedium.
Far from it, in fact, as Boyd soon learns after half-dead stranger named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) shows up. Colqhoun explains that he barely escaped a cannibalistic disaster in the mountains above Fort Spencer, and when his story is investigated the movie begins its twisted journey into the nether regions of storytelling.
The story is slim and the acting isn't much better. On the whole, the story is told in a rather drab fashion and is executed poorly, drawing no emotion other than a tinge of doubt from the audience. Attempts at suspense or depth do not work, as when the story tries to play with Colqhoun's background. His role is immediately obvious to the audience. Similarly, the process of establishing Boyd's history is muddled, giving us fragments of his story in seemingly random order; for instance, we know he dislikes blood (or possibly red meat) but we don't know why. The only part of the movie that does work is the comic relief, provided by the soldiers positioned at Fort Spencer. Their tongue in cheek dialogue goes a long way toward drawing the audience in, and unfortunately it can't account for other missteps.
The thriller RAVENOUS opens with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, and for the next 100 minutes, that's about as serious as it gets. For all of the spooky seriousness about cannibalism and rampant hunger, there's very little in Antonia Bird's film that evokes prolonged consideration of myth or superstition. Instead, the movie chooses to be something of a dark comedy (very dark, indeed) and espouses true thrillerism only when it suits the ends of shock value. There's nothing truly substantial in RAVENOUS, and this may be a better video rental.
all contents © 1999 Craig Roush
-- Craig Roush kinnopio@execpc.com -- Kinnopio's Movie Reviews http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
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