Stone

source: Stone

John Curran hits the mark with his new film "Stone". In his new drama thriller "Stone", Curran takes us on a gripping spiritual journey through the lives of Jack (Robert De Niro) , Gerald (Edward Norton) and the two character's wives Madylyn (Fransis Conroy) , and Lucetta (Milla Jovovich). DeNiro and Norton literally explode on the screen, a parade of their craft, releasing the tension of an un-nerving introduction to the film; the two actors comedically butt horns which provides relief to the grim subject matter. So much so at the premiere viewing the audience burst into applause. A delicate balance is sought by the Director and Writer both thematically and stylistically. Four distinct styles of seeing illuminate the lives of our players. Stagnant, washed out imagery surrounds Madylyn. Pale greens and extreme soft focus paint the world where we find her dogmatically reading bible passages and killing time smoking cigarettes. A second, portrays Jack as he creates his own harsh, rigid experience. Repetitive, measured landscapes and the strong imagery of soldiers and guns is telling of Jack's boring bureaucratic life. A third, and an early glimpse at the transcendent nature of the film can only be described as breathtaking. Surprisingly, we are shown Gerald's prison world, surreal, an unlikely source of redemption, literally floating in the clouds..

STONE – TRASH IT (C-) Stone is all over the place and director is really confusing whether he is making a thriller or a religious spiritual movie about Zukangor Aka. Eckankar. Mixing up the whole thing together was utterly disappointing. I actually fell asleep during the movie because whatever was happening was not making sense at all. There were so many things which till the end were not clarified, which was annoying. I just couldn't get how they got Robert De Niro and Edward Norton to do this movie? Maybe they paid lots of money. Although, their roles were confused but their acting was defiantly better. Milla Jovovich was Incredible; she looked Stunning and acted really well. Overall, it was a big disappointment like "The American", which leaves you wonder, how the script got approved? And how they got Big stars to sign up?

This movie is so bad it made me register with IMDb, because I want to save everybody from wasting 100 minutes of their lives. I'm a huge fan of Edward Norton (especially American History X and Fight Club), but this film is so bad compared to all his work. The characters are all so flat as a cardboard, it's unbelievably bad. You can't feel anything for anyone. Worst of all is the storyline (prisoner and wive hustle a man of law and succeed), it's to predictable and totally uncompelling. The final part of the movie where everything has to come together, isn't there and it leaves you with a feeling of emptiness, why have I bought a ticket to watch this movie. I'm really sorry I had to write this, it looks so promising, two big stars in a movie, but it's just not there, no movie, no characters, nothing.

How do we make sense of our lives and keep going despite all the bad things that happen to us? Most people find the answers to those questions in religion, and the characters in this film line up like a rainbow of answers: Jack (DeNiro), a prison bureaucrat, is agnostic; his wife Madylyn (Conroy) is a mainline Protestant; Stone (Norton) is a convict but also a seeker who finds his answers in a New Age religion; his wife (Jovovich) is an unabashed atheist. Throughout the film, evangelical radio frequently plays in the background, another stripe in the religious rainbow. As a miserable young Madylyn hints to the viewers in the first scene of the film, the prison setting is a metaphor of the dungeon of the soul. For these four characters, loveless marriages, life work that seems futile, and memories of violence are their dungeon walls. Jack, Madylyn, and Stone all struggle with depression. Stone's is so deep that he edges toward suicide, but he searches for answers among the religious readings in the prison library and finds one that makes sense, especially after he witnesses a brutal stabbing at a range so close that the blood spatters his own face and he sees the murdered man eye to eye. Jack seeks pastoral counseling after church one Sunday, admitting finally that the Episcopal framework of his life has never made sense. The minister quotes the Bible to him, "Be still and know that I am God," that is, listen for the answers that God provides. Oddly, that is exactly the prescription that Stone gets from his new religion too. It teaches that "God" or Truth speaks to us through everyday noises – insects buzzing, the voices of a prison exercise yard, talk radio, or a spoken mantra – if we just listen to the universe. Stone does listen, and he begins to change. His new hairstyle, speech, and demeanor all signal to the viewer that he is a man reborn. The prison walls within Stone's mind fall away so that by the time his parole is finally granted, it hardly matters to him anymore. Jack, meanwhile, hears nothing in the noise of his troubled life, nor can he makes sense of what Stone tries to share with him. As his retirement nears, he grows more and more reckless. Blind to the transformation that Stone has undergone, Jack suspects that he is being played. To the end, Jack remains suspicious and fearful of Stone who has come to terms with this past and feels only gratitude toward the aging jailer. If you are looking for a conventional action flick with good guys and bad guys, this is not it. If you want an intelligent film about how desperate people search for faith and solace, you will not be disappointed.

The basis of the story is quite simple (read the synopsis), but the majority of the film's focus is in its character study. This is where the actors seriously shine. That seems to be the issue with most of the negative responses the film received. Yes, it is slow paced. Yes, there's a lot of religious jargon thrown around. Yes, it is quite the anti- climactic film. But isn't that the point? De Niro, who I haven't seen in anything memorable after Jackie Brown (okay, I'll exclude The Good Shepherd), is marvelous as the underplayed Jack Mabrey. The subtle nuances he gives to a character so burned out of work, marriage -sidenote: Frances Conroy was amazing-, and life in general (the speech he gives at his brother's funeral in the beginning comes to mind) are nothing short of astonishing. I can't stress on how great the performance was, De Niro has definitely gone back on track.

Well after watching this film, i was left a bit confused really. Half of me was saying "there is something meaningful in this story" and the other half of me was saying "this story sucks, it had no relevant meaning to......anything". The film starts with Robert De Niro's character threatening his wife to kill their daughter if she leaves him. Then it immediately fast forwards 20-30 years with his wife and him together meaning that his threat worked and she stayed with him. Enter Stone (aka Edward Norton). Stone wants to get out of prison. He was convicted of aiding murder by burning his grandparents house (and his dead grandparents). De Niro works in the jail house as an "approval of release" guy. Basically if he thinks someone has been rehabilitated, then he writes his report to his superiors and they decide whether or not to release someone. Stone and De Niro get talking and Stone desperately wants to get out of prison, so he sends his wife to De Niro. She basically seduces De Niro and he ultimately writes the approval. In the mean time, Stone keeps talking with De Niro, and he finds a religion that basically makes his desperation go away. Somewhere along the lines, the tables turn, Stone is freed, and De Niro is now having a bad time with his life. The result is that he loses nearly everything, his wife hates him and he has no job and no friends. Now this is the point of the story i don't think made any impact at all. You have a hard working guy who works all his life that made a mistake with his wife (and his daughter). Then you have a convicted criminal who burnt his grandparents and spent time in jail. By the end of the film, it seems like you are made to want to like Stone and want to hate De Niro. I get it. I really do. I get what they were trying to do with the film - Two people did two separately morally wrong acts. One of them was sent to jail, the other spent his life working. I just don't see the point of trying to make the convicted criminal out to be the good guy, and the hard worker out to be the bad guy. Pointless. It just didn't work. De Niro and Norton gave very good performances, as did the rest of the actors and actresses, but the plot of the film just sucked. Big time. It barely made it clear what the point of the film was, and the point it was trying to make just wasn't.......right.

This film is about a parole officer who is about to retire. He works on whether an arsonist should be released or not, which leads to undesired consequences. "Stone" sounds like a crime thriller on paper, but it just what it is not. It is so slow moving, that the first seduction by Milla Jovovich happens forty minutes into the film. Just when the seduction subplot starts to pick up, suddenly the film becomes religious. Then suddenly the wife has gone crazy. The plot is all over the place, lacking in focus and clarity. It cannot decide whether it wants to be a thriller or drama. As a result, "Stone" is so boring, literally making my eyelids as heavy as stones.

The plot of the film is not very interesting. It could easily be the most boring film in the world, but it isn't. De Niro, Norton, Jovovich, one of the best actors in the world made watching this film experience of the first class. De Niro plays a guy at the end of his active life, weeks or months before the retirement. This is the time where he will realize that his whole life was a lie, told million of times, learned at school, thought at the church. Lie that says work hard, be men, don't have feelings. Jack (De Niro) is a stone in this film, until he meets Stone (Norton). Norton's character seems the easiest, a guy who wants to get out of a prison. His change seems also shallow, change initiated by wanting to get out. But by the end of the film he's growing up. In last acts where his parole is secured he is taking responsibility for his actions that got him to prison. With no regret but with understanding. He is the winner in this film. Mila. I think it was my first time seeing Mila in a non zombie film, and I want to say magnificent, her play was magnificent. In the film, she is sweet, she is cute, she is extremely sexy, she is happy, she is seductive, she is intelligent, she is dangerous (when she comes to Jack's house) and she's depressed (at the very end). Lucetta (the character she played) is a very complicated women, but also full of energy. Mysterious too. She can do anything for her husband Stone, but is she doing this for him or for herself? This is a question that hasn't been answer in the film. The viewer will have to live with that. great film.

This is possibly the worst movie ever made. Imagine how bad it must be if I say that even though actors as Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, and Milla Jovovic are in it! It is absolutely about nothing,there's no plot whatsoever, Edward Norton plays an annoying and not very believable character, Robert de Niro a depressing and depressed old man, and Milla just flashes her tits and that's it. It's a 2 hour torture to sit down and watch this movie. It is sooo slow that you just can't help but drift off. I seriously have no idea what the point was of this totally worthless movie, why people invested money in it, and more than anything, why normally great actors choose the roll! Do not go and see this, ever!