Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel “The Killer Inside Me” has caused a flurry of controversy after it’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film reportedly depicts the brutal, severe bashing of women by its protagonist, Casey Affleck’s small town cop/psychotic murderer, Lou Ford, which is detailed as follows by Movieline — obviously full of spoilers:
After making love and discussing their plans to reconvene a few weeks down the line, Lou pulls on a pair of black gloves, then begins to punch [Jessica Alba’s character] in the face, at full force, repeatedly. The camera does not turn away, and as he takes a good dozen shots at her head, her features begin to distort at each impact with his closed fist. As she lies on the floor, unconscious, unrecognizable, and barely breathing, he asks if she can hear him. He tells her he loves her, and that’s he’s sorry. He then takes several more punches.
Winterbottom doesn’t help his cause by wielding the camera in a “blunt, direct and vivid” manner but what shocks the most is the product of the violence, described as a “hamburger” and “stewed meat.” It’s not the only incident of note either with a similar occurrence inflicted on the film’s other lead female, Kate Hudson, as well as the protagonist going on to “kill or molest several men, a teenage boy, and a child.”
Even with misogynistic overtones, violence against women in cinema can still be redeemable and contextual. But where Winterbottom’s film seems to fall flat is that the brutality is reportedly “displayed in a vacuum without any redeeming context to provide meaning to a viewer other than an indictment of their being willing to sit through it in the first place.” Furthermore, severe criticism is predicted to be drawn from Winterbottom’s depiction, purposeful or not, of the victims and their “willingness to endure violence, like Ford’s aggression, are things that can happen to people.”
It didn’t take long for people to speak up against it either. The post-screening Q&A with Winterbottom in attendance would have been all sorts of awkward after seas of people walked out. One woman evidently asked why the film was included in the line up before going on tirade against it. Even Alba herself didn’t stay around leaving half way through and star Affleck has even been overheard berating the film.
Violence aside and with the reported “riveting” performances from Affleck, Alba and Hudson, the film apparently still doesn’t stand up. One review argues that it lacks noir’s “punch, dynamism and genuinely seedy atmosphere” and falls “short of the sort of the rich texture, moodiness and interconnectedness of production values that mark the best contemporary period crime films.” Put simply, Winterbottom tells the “story, but doesn’t bring much more to the table.
Luckily for the director, he’ll be able to sidetrack himself from all this controversy with his next project which is already lined up with Jim Sturgess attached to lead. “The Promised Land” centers on a British officer trying to track down Jewish militant groups who are responsible for terror attacks against British soldiers and Arabs in the lead up to the partition of Palestine in 1948.