An engrossing watch but with some major flaws (spoilers)
Ok, I may be in a minority, but I enjoyed this film. It was dark, gritty, violent and shocking. Yes it portrayed the abuse and subjugation of women and children, wives and daughters, but as it was a product of that time, that genre and obviously it was the whole point of the story, then that’s the creative hotpot we got. Guy Pearce is always watchable as a creepy b@#&£@d and it is interesting to see other actors in different things (the GOT alumni particularly in this case).
However, I found a few flaws that don’t sit right with me and spoilt the piece overall.
1) Fanning’s acting capabilities....where are they? She has little to no range. Sure, she can look frightened and have those big, wide eyes, but, seeing as how her character cannot speak or seemingly make any kind of noise, she needed to show everything on her face....and yet, she doesn’t. Her lack of range of emotion is very disappointing. I think the film could have been much better with a different actress in this pivotal role. Maybe they didn’t want to be too harrowing though, because I can imagine with more emotion in the role it would have been a different film entirely.
2) Just because you cut your own tongue off doesn’t mean you can’t make any sounds!! I mean, compared to this, I was impressed that when the boy was fatally gunned down, he made a sound at every impact; unusual but realistic.
3) There’s no way you could cut your own tongue off without fainting or giving up, or stopping because you’re choking to death on your own bile and blood....the Doctor/Dentist must have finished it off for her. It was such an extreme thing to do and really she could have avoided doing it.
4) There’s no way you could be fatally stabbed and gutted, with said guts being pulled out of your body and wrapped around your throat and remain alive, conscious and seemingly indifferent (I know he asked them to shoot him, but he didn’t seem in too much distress to me; Acting choices again?)
Other little niggles are just niggles and scoffs, like Harington’s ‘interesting’ accent, the clarity of the burning of the real Liz and even when you have been set on fire your character is channeling the Terminator so much you can withstand it and continue to have a conversation.