WAR ZONE, THE (director: Tim Roth; screenwriters: from book by Alexander Stuart/Alexander Stuart; cinematographer: Seamus Mcgarvey; editor: Trevor Waite; cast: Ray Winstone (Dad), Tilda Swinton (Mum), Lara Belmont (Jessie), Freddie Cunliffe (Tom), Aisling O'Sullivan (Carol), Colin Farrell (Nick); Runtime: 98; Lot 47 Films/Portobello Pictures; 1999-USA/Ger./UK)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Warning: spoilers to follow throughout. It's not possible to write this review without revealing the key problematic elements of the film, though I believe these spoilers will not ruin the viewing of this film; yet, some might prefer to read the review after seeing the film.
The War Zone is located in an isolated Devon farmhouse, where a family is undergoing a crisis; it's a family of four, with one on the way, who have moved here recently from London. There's the very nurturing Earth Mother (Tilda Swinton); Ray Winstone is the father with both a loving and a nasty side to him, who can't keep his hands off his 18-year-old daughter; Jessie (Lara Belmont) is the oldest child who is trapped in an incestuous relationship; Tom is her 15-year-old, brooding, younger brother who hates living in the country and confronts his sister that he knows what's going on and doesn't approve of it.
This makes for a grim drama that is intelligently directed by actor Tim Roth, in his first directorial effort, as adapted from the novel by Alexander Stuart, who also did the screenplay; the performances as well as the photography of the haunting countryside are first-rate, but nothing particularly insightful materializes about this sexually abusive situation. Somehow after all the grimness of this story plays out and we see all the graphic details, the story still doesn't grab us emotionally as much as we wanted it to.
We are given a hint of the violence that is to come in the early scenes, when Mum goes into labor and dad packs the family into the car to speed her to the hospital; but, when his attention is diverted by a family squabble he overturns the car. This causes scrapes and bruises to all, but Mum gives birth to baby Alice.
Back home the dramatics are increasingly played out by Tom and Jessie, with a dismally rainy Devon countryside in the background, as Jessie denies Tom's charges, perhaps out of shame or maybe that's the way most victims of abuse react to facing the shameful truth. But Tom follows them one day to a deserted bunker along the beautiful ocean coastline and clearly sees dad poking his sis up the ass, in what must be viewed as a repugnant consensual rape.
The story plays out as the sexually frustrated Tom doesn't know quite how to drop this bombshell as he flashes silent hatred for dad, growing contempt for his tormented sis, and pity for his warm-hearted Mum, who might have an inkling or might not about what is happening to her daughter. The tension slowly builds in a household that appears outwardly as a loving one, until it reaches its expected boiling point. It pits the brutish cunningness of Winstone against the vulnerability of his devastated children. Unfortunately the story and the characterizations can't ferret out more to this story except what Tom despairingly utters to his sis in the end: What are we going to do now? This doesn't leave the audience much room to do anything but gasp at the shameful situation presented and the dirty little secret that too many families find themselves in and can't deal with.
REVIEWED ON 6/27/2001 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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