[size=3]"Fierce People" is a remarkably moving, enjoyable, unique and powerful film. It takes on tough subject matter that others would shy away from, yet it also has a great sense of humor. It is one of the best films of the year and should be a major contender for Best… More
[size=3]"Fierce People" is a remarkably moving, enjoyable, unique and powerful film. It takes on tough subject matter that others would shy away from, yet it also has a great sense of humor. It is one of the best films of the year and should be a major contender for Best Picture.[/size]
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[size=3][b]Griffin Dunne[/b] does a smashing job as director, working with a screenplay from [b]Dirk Wittenborn[/b]. The film introduces us to a working-class single mother and her amazing teenage son. The two are life partners of a kind, each battling loneliness and other typical problems. The mother has developed a drug addiction but has not lost her soul or her love for her son. The boy is struggling to stay balanced in the midst of his mother's drug addiction and his ever-growing feelings of abandonment with regard to the father he has never met.[/size]
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[size=3]The father is a world-renowned anthropologist, best known for his study of a South American tribe: the eponymous fierce people. The boy, beautifully played by [b]Anton Yelchin[/b] (whose giant eyes and almost spiritual acting instincts first caught my attention in "Alpha Dog"), spends a lot of time cloistered in his room watching 8mm films about his father and his work in South America. They are documentaries made in a dispassionate 1950s scholastic style, yet the subject matter is quite dark, given the ferocity of the Indian tribe.[/size]
[size=3]It's very sad and tender watching this tall, gangly boy all by himself watching films of his father. All the boy has of the father he so longs to know are these flickering images in the darkness. He stares at his father on the screen, watching him play with the children of the fierce people, who get more attention than his own son does. But the boy is more melancholy than bitter. He seems bewildered by the fact that he's been abandoned. He seems to know that he didn't deserve it. Adult irresponsibility more puzzles him than embitters him. His forgiving eyes seem to say, I know you've done the best you could.[/size]
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[size=3]The boy doesn't just watch his father in the films, however. He also watches the fierce people. He has learned quite a lot about them and about anthropology in general. This will come in handy when his life takes a dramatic detour, bringing him into contact with a new tribe: the American super-rich.[/size]
[size=3]After a crisis in the family, the boy's mother decides to detox on the remote compound of a cooky but lovable billionaire played by [b]Donald Sutherland[/b], with whom she has been distantly acquainted for years after she met him when she was a sort of candy striper in a hospital. During the summer, the boy performs a quasi-anthropological study of this clan. He also seeks solace and guidance from the philosophies of the fierce people when he runs into trouble. The Indian tribe becomes a sort of collective spiritual mentor for him. [/size]
[size=3]When we meet the billionaire's clan, humor is the order of the day. It is positively delightful meeting the family members, especially the billionaire's daughter, played hilariously but also sadly by [b]Elizabeth Perkins[/b]. (Why do we get to see this fantastic actress so seldom?!) I loved the film's bittersweet approach to humor. Even at its most zany, the film never loses sight of the struggles people face trying to find their way. Almost all the humor has a tragic undertone.[/size]
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[size=3]Just when everything seems to be going swimmingly and the boy seems poised to join the clan (he is wooed passionately and tenderly by Sutherland's grand-daughter, played by a great young actress I've never seen before, [b]Kristen Stewart[/b]), something unspeakably awful happens to him. I won't give away the details, because much of the power lies in the shock it delivers to the audience. But I will say that it's one of the few things that American society is still uncomfortable talking about. This is one taboo we're still so afraid of that we can't speak about it, even on trash TV. I'm immensely impressed with the film's courage in delving into it, because it's a big part of how men make war with each other on a deeply personal level.[/size]
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[size=3]In addition to shocking, it was also profoundly dramatic. I was really at a loss when trying to contemplate how any boy or man would deal with this. The dilemma was so great that it bordered on the Shakespearean. It also raised fascinating, troubling questions about class stratification, another phenomenon of human life that Americans are still uncomfortable talking about. The boy turns to the guidance of the fierce people, and what an eye-opening journey it turns out to be, not just for him, but for all the characters. [/size][size=3]Watching this courageous boy stand up for himself and win back his "animal spirit" was exhilarating.[/size]
[size=3]I struggled with how to rate the film. I wanted to give it a 9, but I feel a 9 must be given only to films that achieve a high level of complexity or artistic innovation. "Fierce People," while fantastic and engaging, was not that complex. It's a straightforward story, completely obeying the conventions of standard film narrative. I can't give it a 9, but consider my 8 to be 8 and nine-tenths. [/size]
[size=3]I save the 10 rating, it should be noted, only for films I consider masterpieces. Obviously there aren't many masterpieces produced, thus I've only given out one or two 10's in the past couple years. I've also given out only a handful of nines. This year so far, I've given out about a dozen eights, and at the top of that list is "Fierce People."[/size]