Review of Joshua (2007) by Rex M — 22 Apr 2008

"I'll give you five dollars if you let me throw a rock at you. ".

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I ain't felt quite so uneasy in a movie for quite some time.

I guess this immidiatly flags up the Omen in your mind at first, but it's basically the Omen without the metaphor. You don't get to write this kid off as being "the son of Satan", there's no quick decision making in who this kid is, he's just clever and manipulative and what makes it worse is he's still our lead characters son. So the ol' "let's just off him" option, ain't exactly on the table.

The two parents both play it well, the mum gets you feeling all sorts of things for her, until you realise the route of the problems and Sam Rockwell as the dad, well, It's sam and even though he's got his suit and briefcase here, he's still a cool MO FO and until he gets exactly what's going on he keeps his rockwellness without it stepping away from the character.

When Rockwell does catch up, the mood changes dramatically. It counters the fun loving nature of Joshua's dad so well. He's on edge, paranoid, suspecting and adds a real tension to the proceeding. More than there was already.

What I liked the most about this movie is it's never simple. There's not "one" reason why Joshua is doing what he's doing and it's never fully laid out "how" exactly, all you need to know and more importantly, feel, is that Joshua is diffrent. He doesn't fit in, and probably never will and the kid plays that perfectly (with alot of help from clever direction).

This is tense, and thought provoking and genuinly a scenario where you are stuck between a rock and a hard place, capturing that feeling parents must have when the kids feel too far gone to save....it's pretty damn uncomfortable.

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"I think you're sick, Joshua. ".