Review of The Flock (2007) by Sean O — 22 Apr 2010

:rotten:

Living in japan it appears I have had the 'privilege' of being one of the first to watch the flock and if I may elicit a few groans I recommend you make like a sheep and get the flock out of here! actually its not that bad I just wanted to write that line.

The flock sees an ageing richard gere about to cash in his chips (or as he sees it being fired) and retire from the world of profiling sexual deviants and keeping tabs on them. Gere has become obsessed by his work even communicating to his peers and normal people in profiling jargon "have you used any alias's in the last six months?" is his response to a bar room tart who fancies a piece of the ageing gigolo. haunted by the death of a young girl he could have saved gere oversteps the boundaries of his job description acting like a cop (to the chagrin of the real cops) waving a gun around and turning vigilante on those in his flock (his working list of deviants) he believes will re-offend. His oddness and erratic behaviour is witnessed by new rookie Claire Danes who is shadowing him before taking his job. For her Gere is almost as terrifying as the deviants with his unorthodox and in-your-face style but as another girl is kidnapped are Gere and Daines the only ones who can help? as clues suggest the kidnapper may well be one of Geres flock.

The film though not a complete stinker failed on most levels as a convincing thriller. Though you may suspect Gere to be a problem he actually convinces as we wonder how odd will his character turn out to be, having spent a life involved in the world of sexual deviancy. Sadly he is not helped by a film that is an unconvincing blend of 8mm and Seven with nauseating flashy editing that is more at home on mtv. The deviants also are badly-drawn and create none of the fear or dread of say hopkins in silence of the lambs especially when they form a support group to complain about Gere`s heavy-handidness. At one point with Gere running through lists of his flock I felt like I was choosing a character on a computer game and I started laughing surely not the creators intent given the subject matter. A scene invoving a neon torture porn dungeon fails to elicit any tension and where in seven we believed spacey could outwit pitt and morgan Gere so completely emasculates his flock your left in little doubt who will come out on top. All in all not worthy of paying a cinema ticket for but maybe worth a look on dvd (which seems likely to be the only option anyway) for Geres performance if little else.