Review of Peacock (2005) by Micheline S — 06 May 2010

I like to think that I have a broad taste when it comes to movies. There are movies in ALMOST every catagory that I genuinely like. For example, there have been some rather weird movies that I found very entertaining.

That said, "Peacock" is just too weird even for me. The first half of this movie does a really good job of drawing you in into the town of Peacock, Nebraska and in particularly into the life of a very eccentric man named John Skillpa played by Cillian Murphy.

Murphy has a knack for playing bizarre characters and is successful in relaying the gentleness of John while also making you feel uncomfortable by his disturbing behavior. But around the middle of the film things go from mysterious to just plain weird.

A series of events take place and send the story into an even stranger direction. The film has some really tense sequences that are quite creepy and some very good performances especially from Murphy and Ellen Page.

But the overall kookiness and the unsatisfying ending are definate drawbacks. "Peacock" is a movie that starts strong but can't keep it's intensity.