|
Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) is about to hi-jack a plane and crash into Washington DC in his fight
against social injustice and oppression--or so he says. Next we are transported one year earlier and find Sam as an under-performing office furniture salesman, estranged
from his brother and separated from his wife, Maria (Naomi Watts).
He detests the system espousing deception and arrogance, especially from his boss Jack Jones (Jack Thompson) and makes impractical demands of moral uprightness and social justice from everyone. Bicke suffers one letdown after the other pressures from work, a loan rejection from the bank, and an unexpected divorce--with Bonny Simmons (Don Cheadle) as his only confidante. As his self-esteem and sanity vanish with his American Dream of success and a happy family, he finds President Richard Nixon with all his broken promises as the culprit of his miseries and plots to do the nation a favor by assassinating him.
The movie is intense and provocative. The sharply written dialogue brilliantly unfolds the
plot as it scrutinized one man's personal and social agony. Masterfully, camerawork explores human emotion with extreme close-ups and dolly shots that place the audiences at
the heart of the drama instead of being a passive viewer.
The musical scoring perfectly underlines the sentiment of each scene, specifically the use of the musical box poignantly reflecting the sadness and gratuitous character study. The directorial genius is emphasized by how all technical and aesthetic subtly come together to effectively deliver the moral punch.
Everybody has low days and bad days and sometimes people remain in a slump half their lives.
But not everybody is driven into desperate madness. In fact, most people rebound stronger, wiser and happier. The key word is rebound. Life is supposed to be hard and challenging and painful. These give it color and value, provide lessons, open opportunities. The point of life is to continue living. And to continue living calls for people to focus on what they have that is good and beautiful and learn from what they have lost. One will certainly sympathize with the pain and frustrations of Bicke but definitely one cannot condone his choices. Bicke blames everything and everyone but himself when in truth, his misery is brought about by his actions yet he rejects culpability. If Bicke were not so obsessed with trying to fit into his own world then he would have seen endless possibilities of goodness and blessings. Undoubtedly, Bicke starts as good person with such unwavering conviction for integrity and uprightness but ends up as arrogant and corrupt as the rest because he loses trust and hope and views the world like a horse with blinders... (and perhaps overlooked one important part of living... that is praying)!
(Date Reviewed: 22 July 2005)
|
