What happened to Ed Norton? Anyone who witnessed his amazing performances in films such as Primal Fear, American History X, and Fight Club was left in no doubt that here was a young actor with and endless amount of talent, to the point where some people called him the new De Niro. For many the last sighting of the new De Niro was in the underwhelming The Incredible Hulk. But now he has returned to our screens in force, staring in the new drama Stone alongside Milla Jovovich and the original De Niro himself. Stone is the story of Norton’s incarcerated arsonist Gerald ‘Stone’ Creeson, who after a lengthy prison term, finds himself up for parole. Desperate for release, Stone uses his beautiful young wife Lucetta to seduce and manipulate his soon to retire parole officer, Jack Mabry, played by De Niro. Set against a backdrop of religion and morality Stone is an exploration into the concepts of right and wrong, and just how far people are willing to go to get what they want.
The good news is that Norton is back on form, his performance as Stone is fantastic, and he manages to give the character a depth that is utterly believable. The most interesting parts of the film focus on his attempts to make sense of his own existence and his increasing desperation to escape the confines of his cell. Similarly De Niro’s characterisation of Jack is wonderfully underplayed and it is a delight to watch the two actors play off each other, as the majority of the film is structured around the conversations between the two men in Jack’s office. Jack is a complex character, repressed and conflicted, he is a man who no longer believes in anything. Frances Conroy deserves credit for her performance of Jack’s alcoholic wife, a woman so neglected that she has been reduced to the status of a shadow in her own house. Even Jovovich is good as the siren-like Lucetta, proving she does have some acting chops beyond slicing up zombies in the Resident Evil films.
Stone is a film that will appeal to fans of performance led drama. Director John Curran has done an admirable job in the construction of the film, the scoring and editing are remarkably well done and add to the feel of rising tension. But in all honesty, despite the great look of the film Stone would play just as well on stage, and there is a definite feel of Tennessee Williams to the script that goes beyond the southern setting. The trailers have marketed Stone as an intense thriller, this is a mistake. It certainly contains moments of intensity but it is most definitely not a thriller and anyone expecting to see such a film will be sorely disappointed. As a moral drama, Stone works very well, but the question of how well it will play to a wider audience is a tricky one. It is a good film, but it is one that requires the viewer to be in a very specific mood when watching it.
Review by Elliot Hyams
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