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| Movie poster image source & credit: Wikipedia |
The tale is of a bank-robbery attempt by the Nikas brothers gone wrong. The younger brother Nick is arrested by his own doing while the older one - Connie - tries his best to get his mentally ill sibling out of jail. Things go haywire when he is short of the bail money by 10,000 USD, and he tries to take on the law by himself.
Brothers Ben and Josh Safdie have directed a good, dark indie-film. What's even more remarkable is that Ben himself plays an important role - very compellingly!
Observe how the director-duo do particularly well to give us an insight into Nick Nikas' character in the introduction scene, when he is taken through a therapy session. Thus setting the stage well...
What I liked best about the film - Robert Pattinson, in what is possibly his most trying role till-date. He is terrific.
Next is the culpable palpability throughout the film. And the credit for this goes to the performances of the two brothers in the movie and for the sense of direction by the Safdie brothers.
The lighting too. They've kept it dark, throughout the film, and I was reminded of Taxi Driver and Dog Day Afternoon, for some reason. (Again, two other movies where the lead characters play unsurpassable roles.)
It is touching to see Connie's love for his younger brother, and that is glazed by the tough lives they've led from childhood - poverty, living in a ghetto, and things like that.
The one annoying thing to me throughout the film was the camerawork. It was deceptive, to say the least, and felt like constantly being swung in the face. The close-ups could have been far and few, here and there, but the director probably intended to do that on purpose. Now, one might get the impression that that is done only when the director is not confident on an actor's ability. I remembered a close friend's mention of a similar thing being done with the director choosing to show Deepika Padukone's back, to avoid her expressions, in the Love Aaj Kal scene when Saif wishes to go back in time and wishes he hadn't let her go. The loss here - Pattinson is so good that you wish they showed his expressions even more clearly than doing what they have done with the camera.
My friend had a more positive opinion on this, and was of the view that the director may have wanted to shoot it on a low-budget, and so, with the close shots, may have intentionally cut-out the surroundings, thus not having to bother much about the set design, locations, et al.
And/or also that since there's not too much of a story, and it was all in the emotions of the characters, the director may have instead wanted to focus on, instead.
The background music was hep! And the OST was terrific, overall.
Apoorva, thank you for your special inputs, too, on this one. :)
My verdict: 3.75 out of 5. Watch it for Pattinson's best role to-date. And for some gutsy, edgy thrills.
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