Okay, "holiday movie" is twisted, but consider its theme: an entire wasted worthless life may be redeemed by a single selfless act. This ONLY works if one focuses solely on the brilliant performance by Dennis Farina who is fearless showing the "warts-and-all" side of his character, who teeters so close to "all," we are nearly as surprised as Joe May when ethos penetrates his ego. But the script succumbs to the failures of so many these days: the too-easy Totally Two-Dimensional Bad Guy, and System That Supports Bad Guy in Position of Authority Making Woman Total Victim of Man and System. The moral ambiguity of Joe's Final Act is not supposed to be an issue, according to the script, because the beneficiary of his Selfless Act will either die eventually at the hand of her tormentor, or she will lose her child if she invokes protection from the agencies that should protect her. We must assume one of two things to believe Joe's Final Selfless Act is justified: the "System" actually will never protect the hapless female, or Joe and the hapless female are not unreasonable in assuming this is the case.
I may be alone in the wilderness, but I believe it is time to stop painting pictures of a society that is so broken a perfect victim can find no protection but at the hands of an avenger. I rate this movie a 9 for performances and direction, and a 1 for its theme. Thus, my average rating of 5.
I may be alone in the wilderness, but I believe it is time to stop painting pictures of a society that is so broken a perfect victim can find no protection but at the hands of an avenger. I rate this movie a 9 for performances and direction, and a 1 for its theme. Thus, my average rating of 5.