Stone (2010)

Please don't spend money on this.

One of my all time favorites.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It was just too painful. Norton did a good job of playing a regular middle-class guy pretending to be a criminal. You could really tell he was just a regular guy because of the goofy hair-do and fakey accent, like what a high-school kid might come up with so as to appear tough.De Niro did a good job of playing a regular mild-mannered accountant-type guy pretending to be someone who worked with criminals. You could really tell he was just another regular guy because he was completely ignorant of how criminals manipulate people, and he kept a picture of his wife on his desk where incarcerated murderers could see it and start interesting discussions with him about his family life.

Since no one got it, let me explain this to you. This is an attempt to adapt the theme of a 1966 movie that Ingmar Bergman made called, Persona. In that movie, a prominent actress has had some sort of mental breakdown, becomes unfeeling and has retreated from communication with the world. A maid is hired to take care of her who is healthy, vibrant, carefree. As the two characters develop a connection they start to rely on each other for validation and emotional support, eventually the characters reverse roles. The actress returns to the top of her professional and it is clear that she has drawn energy and emotional power from the maid. At the same time the maid has been left an enervated mass of self-doubt and paranoia. The artist transformed herself by art, but accomplished that by sucking the life out of the original youth and vitality of her companion.The same thing happens in this interaction between a prisoner (Ed Norton) and his case officer (Robert De Niro), or at least that is the idea. In the beginning, the prisoner is vengeful, paranoid and self-destructive. At the same time, the case officer is a religious man with a settled working class existence, apparently respected in his job and a tranquil, picturesque family life.The scenes of interaction between Ed Norton and Robert De Niro are of the essence because we see the case officer slowly become more manipulative and hostile, at the same time that the prisoner becomes more natural and willing to let go to the extent of acceptance if he is denied parole.The problem is that beginning with what must have been a masterful script, somehow the director, and most especially the film editor, never got the message and apparently never knew what their own movie was about. As a consequence they tried to twist into a straight thriller with ambiguous motives, artificial tension as we follow closeups of the officer's gun and phone calls to the officer's home that might or might not be threatening.Both of the characters have a guilty secret from their pasts that they are attempting to deal with. The prisoner finally recognizes his guilt and puts it in perspective, and at the same time he derives a sort of spiritual sustenance by a direct connection to the sound current of the yogis. The case officer never deals with his guilty and it isolates him from his wife and the religious aspects of his life that ultimately give him no spiritual sustenance.In the end the two characters have reverse positions. The prisoner is both free and healthy. The case officer is trapped in own sickness of guilt and paranoia. The final confrontation that takes place in an alley does not work because, apparently for Hollywood purposes, the case officer has a gun in his hand. You now understand this movie better than the director did. Too bad, because it could have been great. Can you imagine, Persona accessible to American audiences? It could have been a classic.

The Storyline, above, provides sufficient information to set the whole scenario for you. My comments will concentrate on the three essential characters - a ménage à trois, so to speak - who form the substance of this story. Here is Jack (De Nero), a parole officer nearing voluntary retirement; here is Stone (Norton), a convict nearing the end of his enforced retirement; and over there is Lucetta (Jovovich) nearing the end of her patience - waiting seven years for Stone's release from prison.At fade-in, we find out two crucial facts in two minutes or less: young Jack is prepared to commit the very worst kind of atrocity to keep his marriage, and his wife, Madylyn (Conroy) is an abused young woman wanting out of a dead marriage (see the first lines in Quotes, above).Forty years later, Jack is still an icy-calm control freak who's been listening to convicts' sob stories for too, too long; so much so, his face is set as though in stone. Jack never truly smiles; he probably doesn't know how. Sitting opposite Jack - literally and figuratively - we met Stone who wants - needs, so he says - parole because he has finally seen the light, the error of his ways. A stark contrast to Jack, Stone is too talkative, too inquiring, too hip, too jovial at times, too much in-your-face for Jack to take. The explicit script and perfect deliveries by both players are simply scintillating.The give and take between the two persists and enters a new and dangerous dimension when Lucetta sets about seducing Jack to grant the parole Stone needs and wants - in between her own sexual forays with other men. Faithful - to anybody - she is definitely not. What's more: Stone knows that and even warns Jack that "she's an alien". The slow-paced build-up of tension will annoy those who expect Psycho-like action and mystery. This is not schlock psychology; this is the plain truth about some people's real lives in anybody's town. About a disturbed, depressed and repressed Jack, all alone but married all his life, with a daughter and grandchild he never sees any more, as he struggles to rationalize all of his past sins - particularly during his eulogy at his brother's funeral - but psychologically incapable of facing his own dreadful, awful reality. Until it's too late. It's a tour de force of acting guaranteed to make many viewers squirm in their seats. Little wonder this movie bombed at box office.As a contrast, we see the young Stone gradually turning to malleable clay as he discovers and truly faces his own devils and decides to break with his past completely - the alien within as much as without viz. the shapely, sinuous and seductive Lucetta (and a great piece of acting by Vovovich). Throughout this story, the deliciously ironic snatches of day-time religious shows and interviews overlay the dichotomy of each of Jack's and Stone's search for ... redemption within themselves, if not with their god. One of them eventually succeeds.... Just how all that is shown I'll leave you - urge you - to see for yourself. The denouement between Jack and his wife is gut wrenching - and liberating. That between Jack and Stone - erstwhile master and slave - is precisely, exactly right.The rest of the cast is uniformly fitting and effective. The direction and editing are exemplary. Nine out of ten for this effort.

Great film, should not be 5/10 on here. At first I was in doubt of the con's southern/ghetto accent but it ended up working well and he has good chemistry with Jack. There is expert pacing and the music is perfectly arranged. There is a constant edge-of-your-seat kind of feeling; like a tense vibration.There is all this background philosophical musing that I love in movies. This is what separates the great movies from the OK movies. This movie makes your brain go into a warm coalescing type frequency.She is an alien, as a matter of fact, you can tell that she is. The chemistry with her and Jack is good too. This is one of those movies that you just want it to keep going. The final scenes show all of Jack, his wife, Stone, Stone's wife all separated, looking into the ether. Stone is what humans are at first, after a long time they graduate to becoming human. Then as a human, they try and amend all their past mistakes until balance is reached. God is like a huge boxer holding his hand out on the tiny opponent's head as he flails away, this is Satan. Lots of good metaphors and a very indulging film.Best quote:You can't see forever