Word: paxtonã
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2002-2002
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though Frailty is Paxton??€™s debut, he has experienced vicarious tutelage under the likes of director James Cameron and ventures on a polar opposite from his frequent employers. Where Cameron frequently descends into overblown melodrama and explicit sentimentality, Paxton exhibits an oddly compelling restraint. He pulls fewer emotional punches than might be expected in this, a tale of questionable morality, and leaves almost all the gore offscreen. Using sounds suggestive of the violence that the father inflicts on his demons, the camera pans to the reaction shots of his children, and in those moments, the images truly chill...
Ultimately however, the failing of Paxton??€™s efforts lies in the thinness of his material. His first film is noteworthy in that it is one of the few horror flicks to use children as more than token set-pieces to elicit terror from an audience, but it at times feels like Paxton is trying to stretch the skin of an hour-long episode onto the frame of a full-length feature. Frailty doesn’t delve into the father’s psyche, leaving the psychology out of the thriller, and uses one huge leap of improbable...
| 1 |