Stone had the talent to be a special movie but it didn’t quite measure up especially with the screenplay. De Niro himself is sadly just OK in his role while Norton, as usual, excels playing a tormented character who you’re not exactly sure what to make of. You might find this to be good as a weekday rental otherwise wait to check it out on HBO in a year or so.
Stone (2010)
Genre(s): Drama/Suspense
Anchor Bay | R – 105 min. – $39.99 | January 18, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: John Curran
Writer(s): Angus MacLachlan (written by)
Cast: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Frances Conroy
DISC INFO:
Features: Featurette, Theatrical Trailer
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.40
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Codec: AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 3.25/5
John Curran’s Stone is not an entirely ambitious film and in fact presents some simple ideas with overly long and tired dialogue delivered by some truly talented actors. Curran you might recall previously directed the sobering drama, We Don’t Live Here Anymore (a movie I didn’t much care for) and The Painted Veil starring Edward Norton; he was also the writer of 2010’s dark film noir, The Killer Inside Me.
Stone is about a parole officer named Jack (ROBERT DE NIRO) who is half his way into retirement but feels an obligation to see his open case files through to the end. One of these is Stone (EDWARD NORTON) who is serving an eight year stint for arson and the murders (committed by his cousin) of his grandparents. Although Jack’s mind might be on the clichéd golf course, he’s still stern and immediately butts heads as Stone doesn’t seem to take crap from anyone but sees he can’t talk his way past Jack either. So to help the process along and get his release, Stone enlists the help of his wife, Lucetta (MILLA JOVOVICH) to use whatever methods possible to, well, persuade Jack.
What follows is a psychological battle between Jack and Stone as each try to be one up each other while Jack’s own life comes undone as Lucetta brings a force of nature he can’t control.
While it’s fun seeing two great actors spar with one another throughout this 100-minute drama, it’s not exactly enticing or very interesting especially when despite all their words and weird dialect/drawl (especially on Norton’s part which takes some time to get used to), it doesn’t add up to a whole lot. They try to put a spotlight on religious views and coming to grips but in the end it never really hits home.
Acting wise, Robert De Niro continues his spiral downhill in his aging career. Now, this isn’t to say he turns in a poor performance but I didn’t get a sense beyond his lines and usual emotions that there was some internal change with his character.
Meanwhile, Norton, with his weird accent, gives it his all which is something I come to expect from all his films – save perhaps for The Italian Job which may be the only film he truly phoned in for obvious reasons if you know the history – and here he goes toe to toe with De Niro and has an unusual chemistry with Jovovich in their few scenes together.
Speaking of which, despite what the back cover says that Milla Jovovich gives a “raw breakout performance”, that’s merely code for the fact she’s topless in a couple of scenes (with stiff nipples) but beyond that, her actual performance isn’t anything memorable though she does manage to keep up with the boys and even passes De Niro (for the reasons already stated).
Given this cast and even the director behind the camera, Stone should have been a far better film than it actually was, even with an average performance from De Niro. The fault I guess lies with the screenplay written by Angus MacLachlan, the man behind 2005’s Junebug. I think MacLachlan had something going here but like most screenplays, it probably needed another pass just to expand on a few things and make it a more impactful movie because in its current state, it was not. He tries to tackle the issue of morality, religion and some hefty ideas but it never really hit home for me even though I could see what it was trying to do.
If it were not for Norton and De Niro, this would be a completely forgettable film, though I think it’s worthy of at least a rental for Norton and a couple psychological word-sparring scenes between he and De Niro (and even Jovovich is pretty good despite her character’s shortcomings).
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1/5
All we get is a short Making of Stone (6:16; SD) featurette – which just has some basic EPK material where cast and crew discuss the movie – and a theatrical trailer (2:33; HD).
VIDEO – 4/5
Presented with a 2.40 aspect ratio and 1080p high-definition, Stone is actually a good looking title on Blu-ray. Like many other releases I’ve checked out recently, this is not the type of film that will pop off the screen but at the same time it does offer up some advantages. The first is the level of detail is good and color distribution seems about right as well. There’s a discernable amount of noise throughout that helps with the detail levels.
AUDIO – 4/5
There’s not a whole lot of action but the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track can get a little aggressive during a few “tense” scenes where the low frequency channel would kick on. Otherwise, dialogue is crisp and clear as are the ambient noises such as the buzzing of a bee early on.
OVERALL – 3/5
Overall, Stone had the talent to be a special movie but it didn’t quite measure up especially with the screenplay. De Niro himself is sadly just OK in his role while Norton, as usual, excels playing a tormented character who you’re not exactly sure what to make of. You might find this to be good as a weekday rental otherwise wait to check it out on HBO in a year or so. The Blu-ray itself has good video and audio transfer but fails in providing anything of substance with the features.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 01/19/2011