Word: culkins
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Ruben did interrupt the flow of the film when he overplayed the early moments of tension. If the whole audience knows from the start that Culkin plays an undercover killer, then it's none too tricky to produce tense moments auguring imminent disaster. Ruben dwells on each scary mask, toy gun, and childish threat, until Culkin's every mouthful at dinner appears redolent of latent monomania...
Discerning aesthetes might make the pilgrimage to The Good Son for the sake of respected British author Ian McEwan's screenplay, prepared stoically to endure the vicissitudes of Macaulay Culkin, commercialized American cinema and Hollywood's uncomprimising compromisal of artistic integrity. They will be disappointed. Contrary to expectations, it's the director and actors who make the most of a lukewarm script...
...persuade the rest of the world that the adorable wee lad is actually evil incarnate? Mark (Elijah Wood) goes to stay with his aunt and uncle on the death of his mother. A few days of rougher-and-tumblier-than-expected play with his cousin Henry (Macaulay Culkin) convince him that he is skating on thin ice, at times literally. But to grownups, Henry appears so harmless, and Mark himself has been acting so unstable since his mother's death, that no one will listen to him. Will Mark wrench the scales from the world's eyes, or will Henry...
Furthermore, the over-ambitious dialogue places undigestible speeches in the mouths of our tiny tot protagonists. I'll buy a stunning transition from cute kid to devilspawn, but Macaulay Culkin saying "Don't fuck with me" is just a bit too much to swallow...
Meanwhile, Culkin himself acts precociously. He realizes that casual deadpan in a ten-year-old looks far more sinister than sidelong glances and wicked cackles, and so plays it straight. Culkin's calm in turn forms the perfect foil to the frenzied indignation of Wood, his fearless adversary. Splattered with tomato juice, frenetically pumping squash down the disposal, Wood manages to look far more twisted and dangerous than Culkin ever does. The dynamic of this role-reversal, excellently acted by both Wood and Culkin, generates all the tension in the film. The pair carries the production; all other players...