Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly good, if you ignore the ending
Review: Affliction (Paul Schrader, 1997)Paul Schrader and Nick Nolte have both had, at best,
inconsistent careers. Putting the two of them
together, one would assume that the resulting film had
an above-average chance of being godawful. And yet
somehow, what they ended up with was Affliction, a
movie that garnered Best Actor noms for Nolte from
everyone who matters and most who don't, and actually
garnered a Best Supporting academy award for James
Coburn. The Academy, of course, have never been the
world's best judges of taste, but they hit the mark
this time. Wade Whitehouse (Nolte) is a part-time cop and city
worker in a small town in upstate New Hampshire. He's
burderned with a pain-in-the-ass ex-wife (Mary Beth
Hurt), a new girlfriend (Sissy Spacek), a boss who's a
bit too slick for his own good (Homes Osborne), and an
alcoholic father (Coburn) whose path he's dangerously
close to treading himself. When deer season begins
with a suspicious hunting accident, both Whitehouse
and his boss resent the State Police horning in
immediately, and Whitehouse starts investigating. Ultimately, the movie is a character study of
Whitehouse and his relationship to his father, and the
mystery of the dead deer hunter takes, or should take,
second stage to this. And this is the film's only
major failing; Schrader and Russell Banks (adapting
his own short story) feel the need, after sublimating
the mystery in the film's climax, to tie up the loose
ends the script has spent two hours demanding be left
at the end. Losing the last two minutes of narration
would have done this film a world of good. But those
last two minutes aren't enough to undercut the first
hundred sixteen, which are excellent through and
through. I'm not normally a fan of Nick Nolte in any
way, shape, or form, but he's excellent in here, as is
Coburn. Sissy Spacek shows us why she never should
have fallen into obscurity after an all-too-short
stint on the A-list, and Willem Dafoe, who plays
Wade's brother Rolf, does his usual excellent job
despite having very little screen time. Aside from the
wealth of starpower, the cinematography is grand.
Well, as long as you like snow, snow, and more snow.
Nice to see someone using something other than
darkness to give a feeling of claustrophobia. The climax, in this Oprah-infested age, is
predictable, especially to anyone who's even vaguely
familiar with Russell Banks. That, however, is as irrelevant as who actually killed the deer hunter. ***
1/2
Rating:
Summary: Good Film, Bad Fathers
Review: Paul Schrader wrote and directed this engrossing drama of one man's self-destruction. Nick Nolte plays Wade Whitehouse, the small-town sheriff who is simultaneously the employee of the town's leading contractor. Whitehouse is basically an ignorant man, proud and tough on the outside, but still hurting from the abuse he suffered as a child from his father (James Coburn in a superbly vicious performance that won him an Oscar). The film covers the events that occur to Whitehouse during a couple of weeks in late October and November, when his life collapses around him. Nolte gives an excellent performance as the self-destructive man, persuasively playing his need to express himself and the consequences of his inability to do so. When the film centers around his relationships with his ex-wife, daughter, father, and girl-friend (Sissy Spacek, in a nice understated performance), the film scores a bulls-eye; Nolte's inability to communicate and his mounting frustration and anger are almost palpable. When it drifts into a story about the possible murder of a wealthy, mob-connected hunter and Nolte's investigation, the film becomes increasingly incoherent. It's also not helped by the dour presence and voice-over of Willem Dafoe as Nolte's brother, another victim of the family's cycle of violence. The key scene in which Dafoe--supposedly the smart one of the family--spurs on Nolte's paranoia with suggestions that the dead hunter was murdered by Nolte's friend and co-worker is a particular mess, and the final voice-over in which Dafoe laments the cost of the generations of violence needlessly spells out what we've already learned. There's another unfortunate scene in which Nolte's born-again sister attends a family funeral: why is it that so many religious characters on screen have to be such fools? Can't some religious people just connect with those around them, be supportive, caring, and intelligible? The film's technical credits are strong, particularly the cinematography and art direction which re-create the bleak yet stunning winter countryside of New Hampshire (thanks to Canada).
Rating:
Summary: Paul Schrader's stark masterwork.
Review: "Affliction" is a rare peephole into the abyss of our weaknesses - then a downward spiral into desolation and fear, or, as one character puts it: "Man's seduction into revenge." Paul Schrader, who wrote "Raging Bull" "Taxi Driver" and "The Mosquito Coast," works here from Russell Banks' novel. Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is a second-rate sheriff in wintry, upstate New Hampshire who doubles as a worker for a landscaping contractor (Holmes Osborne) to make ends meet. He lives in a trailer. He wears flannel sweatshirts and raggedy coats. He smokes marijuana, drinks incessantly. Wade's pushed by almost everyone, his mind is half-clogged by his ex-wife (Mary Beth Hurt), a distant, cold woman who took Wade's equally distant, cold daughter with her when they divorced. Nolte, in the best work of his long career, has a chewed-up face, bad haircut, slouchy demeanor. But his presence looms larger in "Affliction" than it ever has before. His outbursts of anger are matched solely by his father, Glen (James Coburn). Through flashbacks Glen's character is fleshed out as less a man than a force of hatred, tainting all those around him. Rarely has been a performance so wickedly effective. Coburn, who won the Academy Award for this role, snarls, growls, cackles; he's a derivative of evil, a man who's been allowed to rule by fear and intimidation, a man who, when his wife dies, is still taken in by the son who truly hates him. Their toxic kinship is surrounded by a curious murder investigation that serves as a catalyst to Wade's descent. It seems a town bigshot (Sean McCann) accidentally shot himself with a rifle in a hunting accident. Wade thinks otherwise. Possibly it was a murder. There is some evidence to support it, though "Affliction is no whodunit. Wade perceives the murder as a chance to finally best his detractors; we know it will only sink him further.
By the end, all of Wade's problems sink into one, and they all lead to one place: dad's house.
Rating: 
Summary: A bleak town and a dark legacy
Review: Based on a novel by Russell Banks who also wrote "The Sweet Hereafter", and directed by Paul Schrader of "Raging Bull" and "The Mosquito Coast" fame, the winter landscape and cold bleakness of the town sets the tone for this exploration of the dark legacy of what it is to be a man. Nick Nolte stars in this dark story of a the lone policeman in a small New Hampshire town investigating a hunting accident. He is divorced and trying and to get custody of his young daughter who rejects his fumbling efforts to be nice to her. James Coburn is excellent as Nick Nolte's father, a brutal and angry old man who typifies a sick machismo which has in turn afflicted his son. His acting is extraordinary as is Nolte's although their styles are different. Noltle is subtle; his facial expressions are controlled and typical of a man who has learned to hold in emotion. Coburn's face, on the other hand, is more deeply expressive; his eyebrows move, his mouth hardens, his eyes glare. This is the kind of dark, brooding movie that I like. For a brief few hours I enter its world and get completely absorbed in the characters in the way I did with "A thousand Acres" or "The Horse Whisperers". Like these films, there are no easy answers and the conclusion does not wrap up in a neat little Hollywood package that is soon forgotten. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Sad, cruel and slow drama
Review: A sad, slow and hard movie to like:Affliction, the film that restaured James Coburn's career and earned him an Academy Award, is a difficult drama. Directed with coldness and distance by Schrader, Affliction is about a problematic sheriff who is scared of become like his old man, a violent and full-of-rage person (Coburn, in a complex part- he does a great job). After a so-called hunt accident, that ended up in the death of a powerful man, Nolte's character decides to seek for the truth as a way in which he may finnally find redemption. This is a Schrader film, so don't expect happy endings, but is exactly this aspect that makes Affliction such a vigorous psychological drama.There are very similar points between Copland and Affliction, but Copland is more likable, once it has a redeemer ending, and Affliction is a punch in the stomach.Nolte is perfect as a man who is about to have a nervous breakdown, there is a particularly memorable scene, in which Nick's character is looking at himself in the mirror, confused.This film is closely to a masterpiece, but the slow rythm and the lack of basic action and emotion turns this drama into a good, but not excelent, film.
Rating:
Summary: A bleak town and a dark legacy
Review: Based on a novel by Russell Banks who also wrote "The Sweet Hereafter", and directed by Paul Schrader of "Raging Bull" and "The Mosquito Coast" fame, the winter landscape and cold bleakness of the town sets the tone for this exploration of the dark legacy of what it is to be a man. Nick Nolte stars in this dark story of a the lone policeman in a small New Hampshire town investigating a hunting accident. He is divorced and trying and to get custody of his young daughter who rejects his fumbling efforts to be nice to her. James Coburn is excellent as Nick Nolte's father, a brutal and angry old man who typifies a sick machismo which has in turn afflicted his son. His acting is extraordinary as is Nolte's although their styles are different. Noltle is subtle; his facial expressions are controlled and typical of a man who has learned to hold in emotion. Coburn's face, on the other hand, is more deeply expressive; his eyebrows move, his mouth hardens, his eyes glare. This is the kind of dark, brooding movie that I like. For a brief few hours I enter its world and get completely absorbed in the characters in the way I did with "A thousand Acres" or "The Horse Whisperers". Like these films, there are no easy answers and the conclusion does not wrap up in a neat little Hollywood package that is soon forgotten. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: BEER HUNTER
Review: Adapted from a novel of Russell Banks, AFFLICTION is the last movie to date of screenwriter and director Paul Schrader. This talented writer has been the author of such great screenplays as Brian De Palma's OBSESSION or Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL. He has also been the inspired director of CAT PEOPLE and HARDCORE. So don't expect here a one and only dimension movie. We are in the company of one of the men who made the Hollywood of the last twenty years. Nick Nolte is about to explode. His past is haunting him and won't let him in peace. It seems that he even sees it in the snowy forests and roads he has to clean with the trucks of his boss. But the snow is only a painkiller. The problems and his father are still here and haven't disappeared in the icy nights of New Hampshire. In fact, they have become crystallized. Like his mother. In this cold and blue atmosphere, the cigarettes Nick Nolte tries vainly to smoke in front of his boss appear as the first signs of the ultimate fire which finally will destroy Nick Nolte's nightmare by turning it into ashes. Great performances of the whole cast. A DVD dedicated to them, abused children.
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: A Child Dressed as a Man
Review: The movie starts with Wade Whitehouse bringing his daughter to a small town Halloween party. The distance between the two is apparent and about to get worse. They arrive, daughter dressed as a tiger, Wade dressed as a cop. He is a child dressed as a man. The daughter is out of place and unhappy, making this known to Wade. Facing a challenge that is beyond him, he steps outside where he is pulled into the life of some younger people, driving around town, getting stoned and being generally small-town. Why does Wade shy away from being a man? Because his definition of a man is his father, an abusive and alcoholic ogre. Wade has found peace in being a parody of an adult. He can hang with kids just shy of high school because he has not permitted himself to grow any older than just-short-of-manhood. He is pathetic, but he is also very amiable. He could live his whole life this way. That is, he could if he hadn't already committed to fatherhood and if the new love of his life didn't expect a bit more. His new love, Marge, is a small town woman through and through. Perhaps she has been passed around a bit, but she has a good heart. She seems barely content with drifting through life, staying just short of ambitious. Perhaps she'll marry her bear-cub boyfriend Wade and have a family while she can. Perhaps not. She is smarter than Wade, but he is fun and harmless, it seems. Wade's brother, Rolfe, is the kid who managed to avoid the blows of his father. He is the smart one. Smart enough to stay far enough away from his father, smart enough to distract himself from the ruins of abuse with intellectual pursuits. His intelligence bought him a way out. He is committed only to himself. Exposing his own aggression, Rolfe plants seeds in Wade that will soon be Wade's undoing. To Rolfe, it's all a bit fun. When he's back in his home-town, he returns to a role. He and Wade are kids up to no good. They are sleuths, unlocking the truth of the grown-ups. There is no risk to Rolfe since his brother has and will be the shield. Wade's role is stressed in a series of events. He has been powerless in keeping his family together. His ex-wife outgrew him and has moved on. He is powerless against even the will of his daughter. He has not seemed to even notice that she is not 6 anymore, and that she has begun to recognize his shortcomings. All this, he must change. He had been handed the role of a cop, not for merit, but for obedience to the town's owners. This must change. His father has become incompetent and might have even let his mother die from exposure. Wade becomes the head of the household and thus launches his new interest in a commanding role. But a commanding role requires a man. For Wade, a man is a monster. Needless to say, it doesn't go well for Wade and all who surround him.
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