Hoo boy, let's unpack this one, shall we?A young boy (Gattlin Griffith) and his mother (Kate Winslet) are held hostage by an escaped murderer (Josh Brolin) over a long weekend in the 1980s.
Sounds pretty straightforward.
Except it's a love story. See, Adele, the mom, has been a total nervous wreck and borderline agoraphobic, which caused the end of her previous marriage and has made her relationship with her son just this side of creepily codependent. Frank, the murderer, provides a stable influence for Adele and a father figure for young Henry, teaching him how to play baseball and bake a pie.
There is so much Yikes in this film. I get that Frank had One Bad Day and is being over-punished for it. That's not my problem. It's how weak every character in the film is. There is room in the world for all kinds of stories, good characters, bad, amoral, strong, brittle, happy, and morose. I just don't care for weak ones. I end up screaming "Fight back" "Stand up for yourself" "Tell that person to fuck off" at my TV and it's just not a good time for anyone. Maybe someone else could watch this movie and see it's about two deeply damaged and hurting people finding solace and comfort in each other under extraordinary circumstances, but that person is not me. It's streaming on Kanopy.
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