Rating: 
Summary: Sons need love from their fathers
Review: A film about the impossible relations between a father and a son, with a second younger son in the background. The father is an alcoholic. He is violent and brutal. He educates his sons, always under the influence, with the most tyrannical hand he can manage in that state. He terrorizes his wife and he blocks his sons in defensive attitudes. The elder son will turn aggressive and paranoid. The younger son will remain aloof and protect his sanity by this distance. The mother will suffer and eventually die. The elder son reproduces his father's domineering attitude with his wife and daughter and gets into a divorce that he negociates wrongly, accepting everything from his wife not to appear like his father, but to appear like a good father. This leads to impossible relations with his daughter that reacts defensively at once, keeping her distance with this father of hers she probably loves, because she needs him, and hates because she cannot communicate with him. He tries to do good but imposes it so harshly at times that a treat at a restaurant becomes an ordeal. Then he has to take care of his widowed father and that makes him jump over the edge of the abyss. A hunting accident becomes for him the core of a plot against him and teh community, and he becomes Jesus Christ the justice maker in his village. He sees some speculation but misses the point, which is the development of a skiing resort in the village, promoting it into a rich community. He does not want any change : he wants his explosive self to keep the environment that produced that explosive nature of his, which is morbid. This leads to his justice trip, killing the cause of his paranoia, killing a presumed assassin that is no assassin at all, and disappearing in the limbos of anonimity with two deaths on his conscience. This film could have been a masterpiece if it had not been told from the point of view of the younger son, but from the point of view of the elder son, which means from these limbos of society where he has finally recovered some distanciation that could produce a perspective, a vista back over his life. In other words we only have a thriller and we never come to a human tragedy.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating: 
Summary: Affliction (1999)
Review: Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, William Dafoe, Jim True, Mary Beth Hurt.
Running Time: 114 minutes.
Rated R for language and mild child abuse.Director Paul Schrader's account of the troubles that child abuse can bring to those afflicted much later in life--the everlasting affect that the criminality and brutality of the fear it can cause. "Affliction" is not an uplifting film and it tends to drag throughout, but it can at times be very powerful and depressing. Small-town New Hampshire constable Nick Nolte investigates an accidental shooting that he believes to be murder; meanwhile, his personal life deteriorates as he is haunted by a horrific childhood terrorized by a drunken, abusive father (played brilliantly by James Coburn, who would earn an Oscar for the role). The story twists and turns between two themes, but mainly gets tangled and disjointed by the end of the film. Schrader does not seem confident in choosing to focus more on the murder conspiracy or the father-son relationship between Nolte and Coburn. While Coburn's performance was celebrated, Sissy Spacek is very good as Nolte's wife and William Dafoe is perfectly casted as the concerned, loving brother. The final result of "Affliction" is melodramatic, slightly bleak, and overall implausible; however, the excellent roles carry this motion picture from the gutter and heighten it as a moderately effective drama.
Rating:
Summary: OK movie, just couldn't relate.
Review: Summary:
Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is something of a 'do everything man' in a small town in New Hampshire (crossing guard, policeman, snow plower, etc.). The problem is that he has never been able to get out of the town. He has a daughter with a woman that lives elsewhere and is currently seeing Margie Fogg (Sissy Spacek). His brother, Rolfe Whitehouse (Willem Dafoe) is a history professor at Boston University and his father, Glen Whitehouse (James Coburn), is abusive. The movie focuses on a very short period in Wade's life when everything just kind of falls apart. He is trying to get his teenage daughter to spend time with him, but she doesn't want to and he can't really get visitation rights because he gave those away in the divorce hearing. His best friend, Jack Hewitt (Jim True), takes a man out hunting and the man accidentally shoots himself. Wade thinks that Jack did it. Wade also finds out that his boss, Gordon LaRiviere (Holmes Osborne) is in cahoots with another man and together they are buying up all of the town property to develop it. Then when his mother dies, perhaps due to neglect on the part of his father, and Wade moves in with his father, everything begins to collapse. He loses his job, loses Margie, then loses his daughter and his sanity. This is when Glen pushes him over the edge by hitting him over the head with a bottle of whiskey. Wade finally retaliates and, in doing so, kills his father. He then sets his father on fire and burns down the barn his dad in it. We find out later that Wade, still convinced that his best friend Jack killed the wealthy hunter, kills Jack and skips town. My Comments:
The story is definitely very complicated, but not necessarily hard to follow. A lot of time is spent in vehicles, driving here and there as Wade tries to work out his life. In watching some of the special features on the DVD, it becomes apparent that this movie is all about what abusive parenting does to children (perhaps saying something about me that I needed the special features to really bring that out for me). I can't even imagine what it is like, though I'm sure this movie probably hits home for some people. I didn't grow up with an abusive father so the movie didn't resonate with me. I just kept thinking that the movie was about a bunch of messed up people, which, as it turns out, was the whole point of the movie. Overall, the acting is convincing. James Coburn and Nick Nolte in particular, are very good. The story usually keeps you interested, but not always. It almost seems like it is supposed to be a murder mystery and you would think that that plot line would drive the story, but it isn't about the murder in the end, it is about Wade dealing with the abuse, which is what is really driving the erratic story. The movie is worth seeing, but I don't know that I would highly recommend it. Well-done, but unless you can really relate, it is probably just a sad, hard-to-understand story.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing
Review: This is a faithful adaptation of the novel. It certainly doesn't speak well of human nature, and could possibly be one of the most depressing movies ever made. The acting is top-notch from all involved, particularly Nolte (although based on some of his recent legal trouble, maybe he's about as disturbed as the character he portrays here).
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