The Proposition

Starring: Guy Pearce, Richard Wislon, Noah Taylor, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, John Hurt
Directed by: John Hillcoat
Rating: R
Genre: Western, Drama
2005

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: In Australia, a bandit (Guy Pearce) is captured and forced to go out and kill his older brother, if he wants to save his younger brother from being hung.

Review:

Tim: This certainly could have been a good movie, but it certainly is not. The Australian Western is a little-explored genre, but it generally produces good results (Ned Kelly, anyone?) Such is not the case here. Now, of course, this isn’t a terrible movie. Several scenes are quite good, and the film ends strongly. However, it just doesn’t do enough to draw us in. This movie is about a middle brother forced to hunt down and kill his older brother if he wants to protect his younger brother. If that’s not an emotional choice, I don’t know what is. This is not explored in nearly enough detail Everything feels very surface-oriented, as if the producers were too afraid to dive down very deep.

Guy Pearce can be an incredibly effective actor. You only have to look to films like or Memento to see that. Here, he is remarkably ineffective. He makes no lasting mark in a role designed to do just that. The rest of the cast is extremely well assembled, and they all give good, but certainly not great, performances.

Several excellent scenes save this movie from being a complete disaster, but it just doesn’t attack us with emotion or drama like it should. Even the action leaves something to be desired. This film does just enough right to avoid hatred, but instead is left with a kind of mild disinterest, and it slinks away to the forgotten corners of the moviegoer’s mind, where it elicits no feelings of malice or of praise.


Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Australia, Ned Kelly