Review of Detachment (2011) by Trevor R — 02 May 2014

"Detachment"-- like Kaye's first feature, "American History X"-- features an excellent lead performance wrapped up in a mess of a film that, despite its good intentions, feels like less than the sum of its parts. Brody is superb, bringing an inner life to the aching, sullen, heartbroken Henry in subtle ways. His interactions with Sami Gayle (also excellent) as Erica are particularly poignant; this narrative is certainly the most honest, well-crafted through-line of the film--effectively avoiding the often grossly glamorous "hooker with a heart of gold" trope-- but it gets a bit lost in the muddled myriad of other half-baked stories and characters.

There's also such a mishmash of stylistic tropes, seemingly thrown in at random (Malick-esque poetic voice-over, documentary interviews, hand-drawn animation, photo montage, jump-cuts, dream-like flashbacks) that serve to confuse and distract rather than support. Even the ending seems to have far less to say about the overwhelmingly bleak circumstances of these characters than what feels necessary. The whole affair feels both relentlessly grim and manipulatively emotional, while never settling on what it all means.