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Harsh
Times
Christian Bale
stars as Jim Davis – a 6-year military vet who engaged in
some of the toughest
and scariest of assignments when in Afghanistan. Now, he’s out,
and in love with a Mexican
lady he wants to marry and bring to the United States,
but, first, he must
find a job. He’s
been applying to all
sorts of police type gigs like the LAPD, Homeland Security and such,
but
nothing seems to be working out, so he spends his days cruising around
LA with
his unemployed buddy, Mike (Freddy Rodriguez) getting high, drinking
and
looking for trouble. As
these wild days play
out, we start to realize Jim is mentally disturbed, and it might cost
him
everything he wants in the future.
Can Jim and Mike
find jobs? Can
anything be done to
control Jim as he spirals out of control?
Harsh Times is a
series of great acting performances surrounded by a movie with no plot. Ultimately,
writer/director David Ayer wants
to make the movie into a character study, somehow expecting us to know
that Jim
has been changed by his military experience, but he doesn’t
build the case for
how it has changed. We
never see what
Jim was like before he went into the military, so it is hard to say he
has
changed without knowing what he was, or if he was always like this, and
the military
experience made it worse. However,
Ayer
and Bale grab our attention as we see how crazy Jim has become and the
frightening ways he acts out as the movie develops, and, again, witness
Bale
emerging as one of the finest actors working today.
While the plot
almost is non-existent, Bale, Ayer and Rodriguez keep the audience
involved. Bale’s
intensity is frightening, as he brings
a weird charisma to Jim that keeps him almost likable, or at least
likable enough
to believe Mike would put up with all of this behavior.
I wish we would get some background about why
Mike does put up with this (something about a past incident that
elicits
loyalty). Ayer
creates shocking antics
for Jim to engage in, and Bale drives it home with expertise you
don’t see from
most actors, and with enough restraint to make you think Jim is
something more
than psychotic.
Finally, Rodriguez
is good as the audience’s eyes and ears as we see him react
with fright at the
actions Jim takes. He
walks a fine line
between making Mike a slacker without any responsibility at all, but
also
someone who is maturing to the point that he realizes life must be
different. Rodriguez
puts it out there
for those who are willing to pay attention.
Harsh Times
greatly resembles Ayers best known work, Training Day, but it has
similarly
strong acting performances that make you forgive the
déjà vu feel.
2
½ Waffles (Out Of 4)
Harsh Times
is rated R for strong language, violence and drug use
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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