Review of Harsh Times (2005) by Mathilde P — 15 Jun 2009

Dark atmosphere and smooth camera work, psychotic and ambiguous lead characters, as well as Latino street crime Los Angeles were without doubt the positives in Harsh Times.

Harsh Times, a lesser known Christian Bale movie, follows the story of Jim Davis, a traumatised Gulf War veteran finding it hard to adjust to normal life and get a regular job in the police. While waiting for his career to sort itself out on its own, he hangs out with his best mate Mike Alonzo (Freddy Rodriguez). Jim and Mike cruise through L.A. and end up taking drugs and committing crimes.

Going into this film with now knowledge whatsoever of the story except for Bale in the police, I was expecting a kind of Training Day. The Washington-Hawke confrontation here came under the form of Davis-Alonzo close friendship with Davis in command. They were unpredictable and their acting conveyed emotion. It was also interesting to see how Alonzo fed off Davis' energy and how that energy became more and more psychotic throughout the film.

Harsh Times succeeds in keeping us on edge as we are embarked on a crescendo hellish ride in L.A. and in Mexico until the closing sequences. It is a sort of accident waiting to happen and we are there just as witnesses.

Unfortunately, all the above was not enough to save a very one-dimensional script. The characters are motivated by just having fun. Eva Longoria's character is there only to remind Alonzo that he should look for a job. Latinos are gang members and Mexicans have village parties. Bale does a good job with Jim Davis but lacks the frenzy of a Travis Bickle or a Denzel Washington in Training Day. Alonzo and Davis are limited, a bit dumb and have primal desires. At one point I was expecting them to go to Vegas and do all the cliches you can do there - a la Very Bad Things.

The build up to the end is gradual but predictable and lacks I'd say a few plot twists - but then again we are just witnesses of this ride.

Finally, I'm not shocked by the use of swear words for the sake of realism, but I read that the word 'fuck' and its derivatives are used a total of 296 times in this film, an average of 2.47 times a minute. It kind of shows that the script was perhaps quick to write.