Stone (2010)

Stone: Directed by John Curran. With Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Frances Conroy. A convicted arsonist looks to manipulate a parole officer into a plan to secure his parole by placing his beautiful wife in the lawman’s path.

“A prison psychologist (Robert DeNiro) has the final interview of his career, with a man called Stone (Edward Norton). Things get more complicated when Stone starts finding religion and Stoneu0026#39;s wife (Milla Jovovich) uses her charms to influence the psychologist.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOther reviews have called this film u0026quot;pretentiousu0026quot; and I am going to follow their lead. I feel like the story was going to go somewhere and just did not go there, or the writer had a message to share with us, but it was either missed or not as big as I expected. So, maybe pretentious is a harsh word, but until shown otherwise, I am going to go with it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMy other big problem with the film is that it is clearly called a u0026quot;thrilleru0026quot; by pretty much everybody, and I do not know how that was placed on it. There are no thrills to this film. Suspense maybe, tension maybe… but no real thrills. It is a pretty tame film, more a drama than anything.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI feel that the film tries to explore spirituality and fails. There is a background of church radio, Stoneu0026#39;s search for understanding, and some Bible passages… but I was waiting for it to come together and it really just did not ever do it. There was no firm Christian or anti-Christian message. There was some talk of morality, but it was very jaded.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDeNiro gives a great performance, Nortonu0026#39;s is not top-notch (I never really believed he was what he appeared to be). Milla is tough to pinpoint. Some have called her performance u0026quot;rawu0026quot;, but I think that is just a polite way of saying she gets naked. She plays her character well, but it is a shame to see her so dumb-down when she can play such strong, independent women.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think this film meant well, and they gave it a good shot, but it just fell short in a bunch of places. The performances were not what I wanted to see, the story has enough holes that I do not feel it is complete or tells a story that goes somewhere. In the end, I felt empty inside. Whatever I was supposed to get out of this, I did not get.”