Review of The Vicious Kind (2009) by Jenny C — 08 Mar 2013

This movie's portrayal of the complexities of relationships is the most honest and real I've seen in a long time. Adam Scott does an amazing job in the part of the emotionally wrought Caleb. The gamut of emotions he demonstrates and the seamless transition from one to the next accurately captures the true effects of a severed parental relationship, a recent lover's betrayal, insomnia, brotherly love and jealousy, and the desire for a return to innocence.

Scott's performance balanced the explosive with the faintest whisper of action, even beyond subtlety - a quick inhalation, a swallow, a shift in the eyes. I was mesmerized by everything he did. Likewise, Brittany Snow manages to deliver equally brilliant moments for key scenes.

Her on-screen chemistry with Scott was unequivocal. As Emma, she skillfully exemplified the journey through the age of discovering oneself, and the confusion that inevitably comes along with the territory as one passes from childishness, to thinking they have it figured out, to actually figuring things out.

During her final scenes she flawlessly displays the suffering of a girl who has fallen and feels it with much guilt and humility but is still unable to reconcile this with her self-conscious passion. Peter, played by Alex Frost, was a fairly one-dimensional character, primarily serving as a foil for his brother Caleb.

The character demonstrated all of the naivety and innocence of a kind-hearted but simple boy. His lack of depth contributed to the emotional intensity that was being played out between all the other characters.

Synopsis: Caleb was recently hurt by an adulteress girlfriend. During a time in which he is coming undone, he agrees to bring his brother, Peter, and Peter's girlfriend, Emma, from college to his father's house for Thanksgiving, in spite of the fact that Caleb has had no relationship with his father, Donald, for eight years.

In a desire to protect the brother he loves from the sort of suffering he is experiencing, Caleb constantly harangues Peter, and not just about generally traitorous women but also about Emma specifically.

Caleb believes Emma is a whore because this fits comfortably with his desire to blame all women for his pain. In truth, Emma is innocent but wants to maintain the image of mystery and experience that is found only in a woman no longer a child.

As Caleb insistently forces Emma into intimate and passionate moments with him, he begins to show the vulnerability and hurt behind his anger. Emma, in her attempt to remain focused on her relationship with Peter, struggles to find the strength and resolve she seems to believe a "good woman" would have.

But without the experience that is often necessary to acquire such strength and resolve, as soon as she is experiencing a possibly new vulnerability within herself, she finds herself succumbing to Caleb's accidental seduction.

When Caleb completely gives in to his own vulnerability he returns to the house of his father. Emma and Caleb, simultaneously experiencing their own personal moments of weakness give in to their attraction to each other.

Caleb, having let himself have sex with her and believing he was just another in a long list of lovers for her, unknowingly takes away her virginity, turning her into the girl capable of this ultimate betrayal.

Upon learning that he was Emma's first, he is then horrified by the realization that his giving in to his desire did not prove the point that women are whores but that he was fully responsible for betraying his brother's love and trust by continuously pursuing communication with an innocent Emma.

For Caleb, his betrayal allows him to develop a new ability for empathy concerning his father's mistakes. From his newly humbled position, he is able to confront his father for the betrayal and lies that had destroyed the father-son relationship.

Emma is left alone to make sense of everything that she has newly felt and experienced. Peter's presence serves only to add extreme pain to her position. While Peter is busy being in love, Emma is struggling with her emotional confusion that led her into the arms of his brother.

The inevitability of their breakup is the accomplishment of Caleb, who believed that the only way to protect his brother was to hurt him. Job well done.