Affliction

Starring: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, Willem Dafoe
Directed by: Paul Schrader
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
1997

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A small town cop (Nick Nolte) struggles with suspicions about a hunting accident that he believes might have been murder, while dealing with his abusive father (James Coburn).

Review:

Tim: I enjoyed Affliction and now that it's finished, I'm trying to remember why. This is somewhat of an odd movie. It doesn't follow the expected trajectory. There's a lot happening here and not all of it is designed for a big payoff at the end. The characters are mostly flawed and the overall story is somewhat dark. There's many aspects of the story that are somewhat unsatisfying. And yet, the movie does work. The fact that it's so different creates a unique viewing experience. This isn't a perfect film, but it does enough right that it held my attention throughout.

The film centers around a family that could unhesitatingly be called dysfunctional. There's an overbearing, probably abusive patriarch of the family. We see some of his brutality in flashback scenes, but it's never put fully on display. It feels like the full extent of the impact of his behavior on his children is more implied than explicitly shown. There's two sons, whom most of the film centers around, although one of them doesn't show up until nearly an hour into the movie and then only has a small role moving forward. Apparently there's a sister, too, although she might as well be nonexistent. As I'm typing this, I recognize how strange it sounds. It's like this movie tells the story of a family drama but only the father and the eldest son are really featured. That usually isn't the cast. We do see most of the film through the eyes of our protagonist, the eldest son and somewhat unreliable as a protagonist. It's really not a conventional story.

This could easily not have worked, but it does, and a big reason why is the cast. Nick Nolte is really strong in the lead role. He keeps us on our toes- should we like and sympathize with his character? Should we despise him? Feel pity for him? There's a range of emotions and Nolte's performance moves between them. It's almost like the character doesn't even know what to think of himself, which makes it difficult for us to. All through this, though, Nolte captures the flawed humanity of this character.

Sissy Spacek adds in a good supporting performance. She doesn't have an enormous role, but her scenes are powerful and leave a lasting impression. She brought a little balance to this overly masculine film and the movie is far better because of her presence. James Coburn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work here and I have to say this surprised me. His role was fairly small and while he does a decent job, I'm quite surprised the Academy awarded him for this. I expected his small role would have left a lasting impression, but it's not quite at that level. Coburn is good and certainly embraces this unlikable, hard man. He makes the movie better, I just wouldn't put his performance at that level. I also enjoyed seeing Willem Dafoe here, but I was surprised by how little he had to do. Besides a phone call that I didn't even realize was him, he doesn't show up for quite a long time. When he does, I was excited because I thought the rest of the film would pick up once he arrives. However, he continually drops out of the movie for long stretches and Nolte is left to carry the film. I was a little disappointed Dafoe didn't have a bigger role, but I suppose the movie gets some credit for doing something unexpected (I realize this is based on a novel, it just surprises me that these choices were made for the film version).

One of the reasons I enjoyed this movie is that it generated this vague sense of unease. I wasn't sure where the story was going or how it would all turn out. That kept me interested and occasionally near the edge of my seat. It was obvious to me early on that this wasn't going to be a very uplifting movie, the question was which potentially bad thing would happen and how bad would it actually be? The conclusion could have gone in a number of different directions. This movie could be called a number of things, but predictable isn't one of them.

I'm a little surprised I liked Affliction as much as I did. I certainly don't have much desire to revisit this film, but it was a really well crafted thriller.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



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