Most crime dramas are plot-driven, but not this one. The film's fascination is the passages where we get to know and understand these personalities. Everyone has his moment to develop as a character. With its textured layers of performance, "Animal Kingdom" sinks into your consciousness.
Hewitt agrees for the most part, adding this about the movie's main character:
James Frecheville brings an odd stillness to Josh. You're never quite sure if he's going to kiss his new girlfriend, for instance, or kill her. And, although he's too young to understand the ramifications of his family's crimes, Josh is not too young to have to pay for them.
Also opening in the metro this week is Cairo Time, a movie starring Patricia Clarkson in the middle of a love triangle in the middle east (it might even take place in Cairo, if you're lucky). Hewitt seems less than impressed with the story, but was able to muster up some praise for the film's scenery:
In fact, it's as a travelogue that "Cairo Time" works best. You may be only mildly diverted by the people and their little romance, but the setting will blow you away.
Strib contributor Rob Nelson seemed a little more upbeat on the movie, pointing to Clarkson's performance as the main attraction:
The relationship's myriad constraints are matched by Clarkson's exquisitely interior turn as Juliette Grant, a middle-aged Canadian woman who seems to be holding years of unexpressed emotion within her slow-moving and slender frame... Clarkson ("High Art," "The Station Agent") toys expertly with the possibility that prim and proper Juliette will drop her defenses, giving the film a measure of mild suspense that pays off beautifully after about an hour.
A lot of acting-heavy films opening this week. We must be coming to the end of summer, and the start of oscar season.
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