Dir.
John Polson, US, 2008, 101 mins
Cast:
Russell Crowe, Jon Foster, Sophie Traub
Review by
Carol Allen
The film takes its title from the fact that its young anti-hero Eric (Foster) can only feel tenderness for a person at the moment of their death at his hand - or so we're led to believe. In fact there's a lot we have to take on trust in this promising but somewhat unsatisfactory study of dysfunctional human beings, which is dressed in the garments of a psychopath drama.
19 year old Eric has just been released from juvenile detention after serving a comparatively light sentence for the murder of his parents. He appears to have no clear memory of the event, though he is troubled by flashbacks, which tells us, yes he did indeed do it. Crowe plays a retired cop, who is convinced that Eric is a psychopath who will kill again and is indeed responsible for another unsolved murder, this time of a young woman, and he is trailing him in an obsessive way which could be interpreted as harassment. Things are complicated by a disturbed teenager Lora (Traub), who is equally obsessed with Eric and who latches onto him as he travels across New York state for an unlikely date with another young woman, whom he hardly knows.
Crowe, who spends much of the film on his own, gives an interestingly low key, brooding performance and Foster is very good as the bewildered nineteen year old, who may be an unknowing monster. Polson latches up some tension in places, particularly in scenes where we fear that the rather irritating Lora, who appears to have a death wish, may get her heart's desire. One actually feels a bit sorry for Eric being unwillingly lumbered with this mad young girl. Laura Dern has a small role as Eric's aunt, who's in charge of him on his release. The hints at Eric's past, his history of sexual repression and its consequences and at Lora's, who is possibly a victim of child abuse, are interesting. But the film does a lot of hinting and promises more than it delivers. And though very effective in terms of building a disquieting atmosphere, apart from the moments already mentioned, there's an overall lack of tension and pace, while the ending is bafflingly undefined.
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