“They say that when you experience a spiritual truth, that it comes through sound. If you let this sound go through you that it changes you y’know? Puts you back into harmony.. makes you like a… a tuning fork of God”. Director John Curran’s 2010 drama Stone reaches for both a psychological thriller and a profound statement on God, yet ultimately and unfortunately the film doesn’t quite work.
The film begins with a look at Jack and Madylyn Mabry in their home in the countryside. It’s a quite scene with Jack watching golf and drinking. Madylyn makes the stunning and oddly worded announcement that she’s going to leave him. Inexplicably, Jack rushes upstairs and threatens to drop their young daughter out the window killing her, if Madylyn leaves him. She agrees to stay and the film begins.
We are again introduced to Jack Mabry, this time played by Robert De Niro. He’s a parole officer within a prison who’s job it is to talk to inmates and determine whether they should be allowed to leave or not. Jack is a religious man and does everything to the letter of the law. He’s quickly introduced to Gerald “Stone” Creeson. Gerald, played by Edward Norton was convicted of arson and is near the end of his sentence. Gerald is foul mouthed and not concerned at all about what others think of him. Soon, we see Gerald talking to his wife Lucetta played by Milla Jovovich about “getting to him” and if she’s been able to see him yet. Lucetta begins calling Jack at all times of the day wanting to meet with him. They meet and begin to have a predictable sex affair with Lucetta wanting more from Jack than he’s willing to give and showing up at his home to discuss matters with Madylyn. During the affair, Gerald has an epiphany and finds a spiritual re-awaking. He loses the cornrows and begins to speak much more respectfully to Jack. Near the end of the film after being convinced by Lucetta to write a positive review for Gerald, Jack is shocked to discover that Gerald knew they were having an affair and he would “see him on the other side”. Jack immediately takes this as a threat and is horrified to awake and find his home burning. Jack and Madylyn escape only to separate. As the film ends we find all four characters going their own way and that Gerald has indeed become a different man.
First off it’s kind of interesting to watch a film at the beginning of De Niro’s career followed up by one that came out last year. With almost a 35 year gap in between those films, it’s clear to see that he’s been given types of roles now and he handles the role he’s given in a more giving way. In Mean Streets, everything was about De Niro when he’s on the screen. Whether is the little ticks, and quick moments, or the constant fighting and moving about, everything about his performance in Mean Streets conveyed energy. In Stone, De Niro is practically immobile in the role. He sits behind a desk, slowly gets up, slowly walks from one room to the next, it’s a completely different energy and while the performance is good, there really isn’t much for him to do with the role.
The meatier role in this film goes to Edward Norton playing the titular character. Having seen this film and Director John Curran’s previous work The Painted Veil, I’m convinced that Curran has something for Edward Norton and funny voices. In The Painted Veil, Norton is a well to do English gentleman whereas here, he’s a tough prison inmate with an accent that I can’t really place. Norton with cornrows is really a tough watch for me. I really don’t think those scenes work all that well but once he has his enlightenment, the performance swings to the other side completely. I really thought he sold that aspect of the performance extremely well. As for Jovovich, her role is that of a seductress but she’s really coming off to me as a little girl. She’s using a higher pitched voice and is silly and immature in her body language and I didn’t find anything particularly effective about this performance. She looks the part and it’s nice to see her outside of the Resident Evil films, but this wasn’t one of my favorite performances from her. She’s much better in The Fourth Kind.
The ending of the film is interesting. As I mentioned Jack kind of went crazy early on in the film and the ending with their house burning down is the cause of his wife Madylyn. When she burns down the house, and finally leaves Jack, she receives that awakening that Gerald’s character is talking about. It’s kind of an interesting way to end the film and I enjoyed some parts of it. It just didn’t seem to all come together and work for me.