Review of The Proposition (2005) by Ramas G — 30 Oct 2010

I first noticed Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast, a film that features Gandhi cursing for about an hour and a half, and since then, he's been good-to-serviceable in everything else. Until now. Winstone's performance as a man attempting to be genuine and decent in the wake of a colonial hellscape is the highlight of The Proposition, a film that begins by warning indigenous people (and I assume well-meaning non racists as well) that its depictions might be offensive. The central plot involving Pearce and Huston fails to hold our attention as much as Winstone's character, the British officer who is forced to be a member of a corrupt system while grasping at the edges of propriety. For those people who have trouble understanding Fanon, watch this film.

These are the positives. The negatives: the film spends too much time on Pearce and Huston. There's too little attention paid to the indigenous people's plights; we're supposed to infer too much. John Hurt, who normally gives wonderful performances, was sorely miscast as a psychotic bounty hunter.

Winstone was not miscast. See the film for his sake.