Movies Reviews

Straw Dogs – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Sep 17, 2011, 13:29 GMT

Los Angeles screenwriter David Sumner (James Marden) relocates with his wife (Kate Bosworth) to her hometown in the deep South. There, while tensions build between them, a brewing conflict with locals becomes a threat to them both. David must stand up and protest his wife and house. ...more

Many filmgoers have vivid recollections of Sam Peckinpah’s highly controversial film adaptation of Gordon Williams’ novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm.

They might remember it as one of the most violent pictures made at that point, with its bloody brutal and sexual horrors, and its strong sense of misogyny and sadism.

A man and his wife return to her childhood small town to take over an inherited house. Locals, including an ex-lover gain access to them by taking on construction jobs.

Issues from the past combine with the couple’s apparent wealth and status and the locals’ envy to form a fireball of hatred, fear and the will to destroy.

Peckinpah’s version of the story is still upsetting to watch today, as Dustin Hoffman pulls out all the stops to protect Susan George who plays his wife. It is an extremely unpleasant cinematic experience, and begs the question why make another?

Filmmaker Rod Lurie (Nothing But the Truth, The Last Castle, The Contender, et al) has made another version of Straw Dogs. But he took the higher road.

Lurie’s film is impeccably made, refined, classically informed and most importantly, watchable. Every bit of suspense, every crumb of the thriller is there, but Peckinpah’s in-yer-face and frankly unnecessary sadism is gone.

James Marsden and Kate Bosworth, who play the young married couple David and Amy Sumner, have been given a hell of a career boost in Straw Dogs. Their characters are on edge to begin with, as they begin a new life in Louisiana, far from LA where he writes screenplays.

The locals clearly resent them and their ostentatious wealth. They would normally drive expensive cars, tip big and toss money around. But in hicksville it’s translated as a kind of superiority. And David does not try to play it down; he seems to take pleasure from it.

As the situation escalates, they must first believe it, and then figure out the extent of it. Soon, they are at the end of their rope, and must face the most basic truths about themselves in order to survive the night.

They’re stripped down to will, focus and determination; all the prettiness and pleasant artifices of life have vanished, maybe forever. The actors have rich character arcs which they handle with ease. And both are nicely shaded. The film doesn’t try to glean motivation but it certainly presents us with what we need to know.

Alexander Skarsgård plays the construction crew boss, an ingratiating, troubled man who dated Amy in the past. His two buddies pick up on that and a kind of shared madness comes over them.

Egging them on is the Coach (James Woods) a drunkard and spiteful man who’s world is handed over to violence and intimidation. Woods is amazing! And Skarsgård, who plays an altogether different character in the upcoming Melancholia, is mesmerizing.

Lurie has taken an infamous film and made it work. He’s hired the right people, moved the story from England to Louisiana and given it a kind of gracefulness, despite the subject matter. This is a deeply satisfying, artistic and memorable film.

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