Review of Harsh Times (2005) by Elizabeth N — 01 Oct 2008

My feelings for this film kind of turned somewhere along the way. At first I found it a chore to watch, it just felt like another excuse to have a film with the F word in every other line of dialogue and a whole host of petty crime and needless violance. Only in this films favour it had two pretty strong leads in Bale and Rodriguez that helped to create at least a little interest in the extremely drawn out storyline. Bale for his part was excellent at showing the quick changing and frankly disturbing character of Jim, but the whole backstory of Jim, his army days and why exactly he is the way he is could have been looked at in so much more detail. As it was I just felt like we were lacking in any real, or clear reasons for his motivation.

It was interesting to see Rodriguez in his role, as at the start I really didn't like his character (I think I've kind of just gotten into the habit of believing he will either be the cute little lost boy, or the cheeky lovable rebel in everything) Not that I fault his acting in this film, he was as always spot on and giving 100%, I just thought Mike was a bit of an ass. But then like I said my feelings began to change, pobably around the time the boys took their trip to Mexico. I was hooked by the tension, the obvious impending doom and I couldn't help but want to see what would happen next and how the story would end for the two leads. Although by the end of the film I still wasn't overly thrilled with it I did in some ways have more respect for it - at least it appeared to try and give our characters some more sympathetic qualities - Jim's obvious breakdown, and Mike's actions to help Jim at the end, much more of a sacrifice on his part I think as he would clearly live with what happened forever. This obviously was a cue for Rodriguez's puppy dog eyes and lost little boy expression and my heart went out to Mike, and suddely he wasn't such a bad guy. The last scene between Mike and Jim was beautifully acted by Bale and Rodriguez, which is probalby the main reason to watch this film, if you can sit through all the other crap just to get to that moment then I promise you the acting is amazing.

Overall I am glad I watched it but I am not sure I'd ever really want to again.