War Zone (1999)

War Zone: Directed by Tim Roth. With Annabelle Apsion, Kate Ashfield, Lara Belmont, Freddie Cunliffe. An alienated teenager, saddened that he has moved away from London, must find a way to deal with a dark family secret.

“I went to see Tim Rothu0026#39;s directorial debut u0026quot;War Zoneu0026quot; to get insight into a deeply talented actor, much as thatu0026#39;s a reason to see Sean Penn-directed movies. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;War Zoneu0026quot; is a cross between u0026quot;Once Were Warriors,u0026quot; the visceral NZ movie on domestic violence, and u0026quot;Wuthering Heights.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s visually stunning, painterly, as the dysfunctional family is set in almost Edward Hopper-still life isolation on the moors, surrounded only by the elements–lots of rain, sea and relentless wind–with the characters mostly silent you sure hear that howling wind instead of conversation– with an occasional human being staring them down.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile the familyu0026#39;s close-knit physical intimacy was realized in an almost 17th century way of togetherness, Iu0026#39;m not sure the abuse was, as I thought most incest more pedophiliac than this. So the universality of any message is lost, other than the lesson that family members are love-tropic and take it any way they can get it with some fine lines dividing functional from dysfunctional.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf Bergman did an abuse movie, it might look like this. Excellent acting all around, though as usual some working-class Brit accents can be hard to decipher by an American. (originally written 12/31/1999)”