[Reviews] The Proposition (2005)
Title: The Proposition
Year: 2005
Director: John Hillcoat
Rating: Rated R [strong grisly violence / language]
Genre: Action / Crime / Drama / Western
Length: 104 Min
Country/Language: Australia/UK / English
Starring: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, and Emily Watson.
Brief Synopsis: Rural Australia in the late nineteenth century: Capt. Stanley and his men capture two of the four Burns brothers, Charlie and Mike. Their gang is held responsible for attacking the Hopkins farm, raping pregnant Mrs. Hopkins and murdering the whole family. Arthur Burns, the eldest brother and the gang's mastermind, remains at large and has retreated to a mountain hideout. Capt. Stanley's proposition to Charlie is to gain pardon and - more importantly - save his beloved younger brother Mike from the gallows by finding and killing Arthur within nine days.
Reviewer Name: runnerlevelred
Plot: Charlie Burns must hunt and capture his brother Arthur burns to save his younger brother Mikey Burns, definitely a conflict of interest. Included good surprises throughout the film which kept me guessing and halfheartedly wondering what would happen next.
Acting: The performances from main and supporting cast members were believable. The accents used were believable and solid performances were given throughout the film.
Direction: The direction needed work. The scenes were slow and the energy was low throughout.
Highlights: The cinematography was excellent; it captured the feel of rural Australia: the grit, emptiness, and beauty of the land
Lowlights: The scenes were slow moving and the jumps from Burns's story line to the Captain Stanley's story line distracted me from the overall enjoyment of the film.
Overall Synopsis: I enjoyed the performances of the actors, but the slowness of the film had me continually wishing for it to come to the climax. The story itself was interesting so I blame the direction and/or editing for the slowness. If you enjoy Westerns this movie would appeal to you in that it has similarities to a Western: crime and retribution, rugged landscape, and coarse characters.
Letter Rating: C
Reviewer Name: Maura/gerlnosebroke
Plot: Charlie Burns,a member of the Burns gang , is given the option of saving the life of his younger brother, Mikey Burns, in exchange for the life of his older brother and mastermind of the gang, Arthur Burns.
Acting: It wasn't terrible, nor was it amazing. It was just, decent.
Direction: Throughout the entire film, there were extremely suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat scenes and those individually were great, but overall there were so many that they ultimately distracted from the climax. It just got so predictable and old after a while.
Highlights: The suspenseful scenes were very well done.
Lowlights: It was split into two mini-stories, much like how Traffic was split up. The difference though, between Traffic and The Proposition was that in Traffic, all of the stories fit together into a bigger picture and allowed to you connect with and understand the characters in all of the different aspects. In The Proposition though, the split of the story did nothing to help connect everything (including people) together. Instead of developing the interconnectedness of the characters and the different aspects of the overall film, the split just distracted from it and it made it very intellectually blah.
Overall Synopsis: This film started out with a Gangs of New York feel, with the Irish rebels battling "The Civilized White", but it just kind of introduced it as a possible theme and then abandoned it. I found that that happened a lot in the movie. There was never a definite theme and if one was introduced...don't expect it to stay around for long. There was nothing cohesive about the story. It just wasn't very well put together.
Letter Rating: C