Affliction

Rating:
Summary: Snowy Small Towns
Review: Although we have seen many films about a man with mental ghosts coming back to haunt him, we have rarely seen it done so well. Nolte must contend with a murder, his drunken abusive father Coburn, and screwed up relationships with girlfriend Spacek and ex-wife (unrecognizable) Hurt. Although some of the dialogue is stilted (such as a "prodigal son" line thrown in just because), and the climax is a letdown considering the ominous narration of Dafoe, this film is expertly made and acted. Along with "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Fargo," someone could do a study of snowy small town life according to Hollywood.

Rating:
Summary: A fair cop or foul?
Review: AFFLICTION

Stars: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, William Dafoe, Mark Beth Hart, Jim True. Director: Paul Schrader Screenplay: Paul Schrader. Distributor: Artifical Eye.

Wade Whitehouse, sheriif of Lawford, New Hampshire, is afflicted by more than mere toothache. An upstanding pillar of the local community, the cop is having trouble with his estranged daughter, ex-wife and the utter monotony of his job. With nary a mugging in recent memory, Wade has content himself with serving as a crossing guard at the local school and running errands for the town's bigwig. It's enough to sap a law enforcer's self-esteem. Yet there are other darker, worries at the sheriff's psyche. Adapted from the 1989 novel by Russell Banks (whose emontionally analogous The Sweet Hereafter was successfully opened out by Atom Egoyan over two years ago), Affliction is a complex character study posing as a conventional murder mystery. It's strengths, beside it's appeal as a straight-forward narrative drama, are many. And writer-director Schrader, whose obsession with innate human violence has previously been explored in his films Blue Collar, Mishima and Light Sleeper, has allowed collaborators to excel. Nolte has already won glittering prizes from both the New York and National Society of Film Critics for his variegated performance. Here is Wade as a seemingly amiable bear of a man, quick to please and eager to fit in with the citizens he serves. But, fuelled by the visible dis-comfort of his troublesome molars, Wade's humour is stoked by deeper demons. The power of Nolte's delivery is where he bestows his character with a dignity and gruff charm that draws us to the man, in spite of his obvious faults and quick temper. Nolte is well supported, too, by Spacek as his long-suffering girlfriend, Coburn has his blunt, arrogant father and Dafoe as his level-headed brother. But, ultimately it is Schrader's authoritive grip on the narrative that makes this such a mastery, satisfactory work. Gently easing his story forward - in which the suspectful shooting of a reputable visitor sets in motion a murder investigation - the director drops in clues to the character that colours the path to the film's dramatic conclusion. And even when nothing much seems to be happening, Paul Sarossy's crisp lighting of snowbound's New Hamspire beguiles the eye.

Rating:
Summary: Schrader is a magician.
Review: Dark, powerful. I agree with another reviewer who says that Schrader makes you feel as though you're in the movie, not watching it. Great performances by Nolte, Coburn, Dafoe and Spacek. I think many reviewers missed the point here. To me, the movie is about an alcoholic. Yes, this one had an abusive father. But he had a nice wife. Yes, he had a distant brother. But he had a daughter we can only assume loved him to begin with. He had people in the town willing to support him. To blame his clearly progressive alcoholism symptoms on his background doesn't make sense. There are too many successful, happy people with backgrounds similar to Nolte's character. The difference between them and the movie's character is: they are not alcoholics.

Rating:
Summary: Stunned, Again
Review: Here is an excellent movie for those who have stomach. A movie for Real Men.

There is no need to reinforce what you must already know of the stunning performances and riveting portraits drawn by the team behind this film. One reading this review is probably wondering whether they need to own it on video, whether it will be worth it.

In my experience, I have viewed this movie multiple times, and it hasn't lost much by way of its impact on me. I believe it would be worthwhile to own, to study the performance, filming, and dialogue. To learn its lessons and never forget.

As an aside, I must disagree with a previous reviewer. I believe the depictions of the born-again sister are particularly accurate. I say this as someone with some sympathy for religion and the religious. This has made me especially sensetive to such persons and their prevalence in the world. I am sure this reviewer wanted the sister to be a strong religious character who would step in and save this family, and show her strength through God and amazing moral sense. Well, guess what. That would have been an amazing stretch given what we know about the family she came from and would have been an incredibly dubious turn for the movie to make. I am afraid that the scene she is in is quite perfect as it is, and is in fact one of the best in the movie.

Rating:
Summary: but don't watch this one if you're already in a bad mood
Review: This movie is painful, and unfortunately the more you can relate to Nolte's lead character, the more despair you will feel in the end. He is slowly unraveling, and as he thrashes around for power and control, he only sinks deeper into fear and self-loathing, and his relationships begin to dissintegrate. The little nudge that begins the descent is a hunting accident that Nolte finds a little fishy, so he decides to investigate, and then he starts to get paranoid. The only real importance of the whole hunting scandal in the movie is what it triggers in Nolte's psyche. By itself, it isn't too interesting. The actors are all wonderful, but Nick Nolte really blew me away with his hugely insightful performance. I've never seen a movie that illustrates so well the cold, incessant struggle to find your social bearings when you were raised in a totally unbalanced environment.

Rating:
Summary: VIOLENCE AS AN ADDICTION
Review: "Do you want a Big Mac?" Wade asks his young daughter as he drives her away from her mother's house "We could sneak one behind mommy's back like we used to." His duaghter declines "Mommy said junk food is bad for you." Wade's face starts to contort, visibly resisting the urge to explode. He is fighting it, and is therefore at hearta brave man. But why is it a monumental battle of will for him to risist as millions do the world over? WHY IS HE HAVING WITHDRAWEL SYMPTOMS? In agony, like a heroin addict resisting the drug, the release that an outburst of violence would provide. Perhaps he does because he is an intelligent man and can see the consequences , but many drug addicts ae intelligent people too. Perhaps because he's been on the recieving end of his father's vicious beating, a fact that makes brute force repulsive to him, but also makes it come naturally.It is in his genes now. Like pregnant mother using heroin, in a way voilent fathers pass a drug to the children they beat, one that like its chemical counterpart requires rehab. Wade (Nick Nolte) the tragic center of Paul Shrader's film tries and fails to fight his upringing or as it is referred to here Affliction. In one of the film's most harrowing scenes when Wade finally beats up those who are close to him, his father (James Coburn) looks at him and says "There's my boy." Later Nolte hits him on the head with a log of wood and says "I love you" and MEANS IT. Nick Nolte's performance is perhaps one of the decade's finest. He roams through the streets of this little town, gradually losing control, nursing a vicious toothache, begging for dignity and respect of the townfolk. He acts childish, paranoid, vicious and angry all in one monumental performance. By the end of the film he is almost literally possesed by the old man's spirit, with those face contortions he starts to look like what he has become, his father. If the film has one flaw, it is the character of Rolf (Willem Defoe) who was the protected brother that the father wouldn't touch. He seems a tad hipocritical when in the voice-over narration he acuses his brother of chasing fantasies about a murder plot, when at the time he suggested it, it made sense to him and to us as an audience. Still this is a minor contrivance to make a thematic point about Wade's decent. Don't be put off by this film's early slow pace, because its performances alone make it a brutal, thought provacative journey into a diseased soul.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent acting
Review: Both Nick Nolte and James Coburn gives a performance of their career. And with co-star Dafoe and Spacek nearly as good this movie is a craftmanship in acting. One of the best movies of the last decade.

Rating:
Summary: An strong film.
Review: Paul Schrander(Taxi Driver, Bringing Out The Dead) is a well-written and directed film.

Nick Nolte in a Powerful Performance as a screwed-up man, has a lot of problems in his head. He all mixed-up with a possible murder case, his daughter and his abused father(Extremely Well-Acted Performance By James Corbun in his Oscar Winning Role).

This film doesn`t always work, when a possible murder case involved. An uneven ending, you will feel sorry for Wade Whitehouse(Notle), his life was finish with his girlfriend leave him(Sissy Spacek) and all hell broke loose, he try to get along with his suffer daughter and his abused father.

Is the powerful performances makes the film strong. Grade:A.

Rating:
Summary: Convincing free fall into hell
Review: I don't see Nick Nolte movies. He does not do much for me, but he was so convincing in this role that it was scary. I got the uncomfortable feeling that I was evesdropping into someone's personal life. In this case, we are privy to Nolte's frustrations and disintegration. One aspect that was covered very well was Nolte's inability to take action and stand up for himself. He's a big and frustrated guy who knows that he falls over too easily and he hates that about himself. You won't see this kind of stuff in movies and I doubt you will ever see it executed as well as this.

Rating:
Summary: POWERFUL
Review: This film is a little gem. It is slow, sad, uncompromising and contains exceptional acting! Nick Nolte is such a powerful actor. His and James Coburn's performances are the heart of the movie. Coburn won the Oscar, but Nolte's part of an abused child who's now a loser of an adult is sooo good that I can't see how HE didn't get the gold instead of Our Man Flint! The final scenes with the final confrontation of father and son are extremely powerful and some may find sort ofhard to take but they are worth waiting for! Willem DaFoe gives a good uncharacteristic gentle performance too. It's good to see Paul Schrader behind the camera in top form.