Hey folks, Harry here with a test screening review of Norman Jewison's latest film... THE STATEMENT with quite a nice cast. However, the below reviewer didn't quite buy it. Feels it's a bit of a mess and not at all great like he'd hoped. NOW - the film is still quite a ways from being done, so take all of this with a grain of salt... Norman still has quite a bit he can do to, tighten the screws of suspense down upon his audience. Also beware of spoilers below, there are quite a few. This one is a work in progress, let's see how it all turns out...
Hey Harry...
About a month and a half back I sat through the most uninteresting movie of my life. That movie is called THE STATEMENT. Directed by Norman Jewison [Moonstruck, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Hurricane] and starring Michael Caine, Charlotte Rampling, Tilda Swinton... and a host of other actors who are so stuffy, I'd rather not list them. This movie was billed as a "political thriller" by the reps for Sony who were there to ask questions along with the director at the end of the movie. Let me tell you, an edge-of-your-seat thriller this is not.
The movie is about Pierre Brossard [Caine] who, in his younger days, executed Jews as a part of the Vichy regime - a French group that supported the Nazi's and began capturing Jews even before the Nazi's requested it. He was exhonerated for his once before, but a new crimes against humanity law has him on the run again. But on top of that, there are other people after him... assassins for Jewish avengers. But he is not without protection. He is a very religious man who goes to confession after each assassin he kills. This is a good setup for a thriller... but there is such a poor execution of story here that it ends up not being a thriller, but a "dear God when will this be over" movie. The entire movie you get to see Michael Caine constantly running from church to monestary to church and back again. You keep thinking "Jesus, he'll die of a heart attack at this rate..." His character is completely unsympathetic and you feel no bond with him. Since he is the main character of the movie, and you don't care whether he lives or dies, you end up wasting your time. Towards the end when the assassins and the government are catching up to him, you don't care who gets there first to either capture or kill him, you just want it all to be over with.
After the film, most of the questions Mr. Jewison and the Sony rep had were "Did this confuse you? Did that confuse you?" - and yes, the movie is very confusing at points. You get a few of the characters messed up because they throw out so many names it's ridiculous. All the old actors tend to blend in with each other, making a mish-mash of story. They only show about a minute and thirty seconds of Pierre Brossards past, and the grainy digital camera black and white flashback doesn't really add very much to the story. They needed to put more focus on his past so we could see the viciousness of the crimes. With the limited amount of time given to it, we don't get vital questions answered: Why are these particular Jews being targeted? Which character in the flashback is Pierre Brossard? They have the male Jews line up and pull down their pants to reveal their genitals - is this a humiliation, or were they looking for something specific before they killed them?
In the end, and here's the spoiler, Pierre gets killed by an assassin working for an unlikely source (the only good plot development in the story - but I'll leave that for you to find out if you see this atrocity) and he gets the "statement" attached to his lifeless body which details his crimes against humanity. You do not leave this movie with deep and meaningful questions about WWII and those that commited the crimes who are still free today... you leave with the question of: Did I just pay to see that?
-trake adams
