Review of Fierce People (2006) by Alex B — 07 Jun 2008

Yet another ensemble piece hits us in the shape of "Fierce People". A piece that tries way too hard to deliver from scene one, and hardly reaches anywhere. The backdrop of sixteen year old Finn and his drugged up mother (Diane Lane) encountering the upper class and the negative and positive sides of this experience, is nor engaging and nor emotionally convincing.

I have not red the book, but I would say "Fierce People" is trying to be something in the line of "Hotel New Hampshire", but it is not, well not cinematically at least. And the sudden event that shatters Finns world, feels misplaced or at least strangely handled by the director Griffin Dunne. "Fierce People" feels "fabricated" throughout its running time.

I love Diane Lane. Since 1984 and "Streets Of Fire".... but she is not convincing me here as Liz, the drug dependent massause and mother to Finn. Donald Sutherland has become, well old and the sparkle is gone he once had. Anton Yelchin was just irritating me throughout the movie, the same goes for Elizabeth Perkins. I do reckon though that Kristen Stewart has the future in her hand.

Nah, this is not working at all in my book. The unbalance between the storyline of the ugliness of the wealthy and the execution is not there. Two stars.