Hey folks, Harry here... with suprise.... another good movie starring Guy Pearce!!! God ya just gotta love that guy! SPYder caught this sucker and spills all about it, ya might want to avoid the spoilers... ya can feel when they are about to come... But damn this sounds good!
Hello again, Head Geek,
SPYder, here. Ah, the tangled web that I have woven over Cannes. It leads to many interesting places, including a screening of “The Hard Word.”
For those who don’t know (and until last night, I didn’t) “The Hard Word” is an Australian picture starring Guy Pearce (“L.A. Confidential,” “Memento, ” and the upcoming “Till Human Voices Wake Us”) and Rachael Griffiths (“Muriel’s Wedding,” and a regular on HBO’s “Six Feet Under”). It’s in a similar vein to “Snatch” and “Pulp Fiction” and other gritty twisty crime films. I thought it was pretty good. I can’t remember if it’s been picked up for a U.S. theatrical release or not, but after the screening I saw I’m sure it will be picked up soon if it’s not already.
“The Hard Word” is the story of the three bank-robbing Twentyman brothers, Dale, Shane and Mal, who have an ongoing arrangement with their lawyer, Frank, that involves them robbing places he picks, with him keeping the loot while they serve whatever jail time may come their way. Apparently, that’s not the only thing that he’s been keeping, as the brothers soon find out.
Guy Pearce plays Dale, the smart brother. Joel Edgerton is Shane, the nice one with a flair for cooking, and Damien Richardson is Mal, the angry youngest brother with some obsessive-compulsive tendencies. The three make for a very interesting portrayal of brothers who have forged a lasting familial bond through the fires of a probably brutal childhood. They are each other’s best friends, and it’s fun to watch them interact.
Robert Taylor plays Frank, their lawyer accomplice, who keeps the local cops in his back pocket to stay in control of the scams the group plays out. Rachael Griffiths plays Carol, Dale’s wife who has theoretically been waiting his faithful release from his latest jail stint. One of the fun things about watching Rachael work is that she’s sexy in a very genuine way; where other actresses have the whole “sexpot” image working for them, Griffiths has managed to use a very confidently sexual and sensual demeanor to supplement her own quirky physical beauty. In many ways it is far more appealing and much more interesting to watch than silicon and surgically enhanced “babes” (a lá Pam soon-to-be-Mrs.-Kid-Rock Anderson).
The story behind “The Hard Word” goes something like this. The picture opens with all three brothers currently in prison, on the day of their release. Pretty much straight out of jail they are back in action doing what they do best, robbing banks and armored cars without hurting anyone (much). They are clearly experts in their chosen profession, and the proof lies in the fact they are successful without having to kill anyone along the way. After the heist, we find out a bit more about how the aforementioned operation works, and Dale begins to suspect that Frank may be looking after more than just the money; Frank may be paying a bit too much attention to Carol (blonde, here; Griffiths has been a brunette in her other roles, but she makes a pretty sweet blonde, too).
From there, we start to get the bigger picture. The lawyer keeps putting the crooks in prison for safe keeping, allowing him to make time with the crooks’ wife, and using his police and political connections to keep things rolling in his favor. He only springs the boys when he needs another job done, which he inevitably does. Of course, it’s the “big score” that all heist movies hinge on, the one that would allow them to all retire very comfortably. Assuming they all live through it, of course.
I won’t go into too many more plot details here, because quite honestly, it was fun to watch the story unfold. Suffice to say that “The Hard Word” looks pretty good, is fairly tightly written, with characters that you’ll enjoy watching. I don’t think it’ll get wider than an art house release, but it could develop a cult following there and on DVD.
My only complaint was a fake nose they put on Guy Pearce. At first I was thinking that it was to make him blend in with the other brothers, but then I realized that his own nose wasn’t all that different. I guess maybe they thought it would make him look a little more nefarious in a Charles Dickens kind of way. Oh well. Minor minor point in an otherwise very cool movie. In some shots, it’s painfully noticeable, in others you can’t really see it.
I’d recommend catching this one in the theaters if you can. If you can’t, don’t feel bad, because I’m pretty sure that the inevitable DVD will also be pretty cool.
SPYder, out.
