![]() ![]() Neill navigates this potentially perilous character To have the revolution reach out and touch him (grab him, really) in a way he can't control. Who it turns out may have more on his mind that simply seducing Gloria.Ī number of shadowy conspiracies intrude in the arguably over convoluted story, but what turns out to be the interesting evolution of Smith'sĬharacter is how a man who was seeking escape (of one form or another) ends up being wrongly accused of being a so-called "revolutionary", only To have that idyllic refuge interrupted by the arrival of both an imperious American named Colonel Willoughby (Warren Oates) and Bullen, Things get even stranger when Smith is able to forge a new life with a new woman, only With audience expectations, only to upend everything yet again when Smith becomes The Fugitive (so to speak). Here again, co-writers Mune and Arthur Baysting, along with Donaldson, kind of play #4k sleeping dogs images trial#These two worlds intersect when Smith is suddenly arrested in what looks for a while to be detour into Kafka-esque The Trial territory. An earlyĭocuments clearly that the government is intentionally provoking protestors, and then inciting violence itself in order to further its aims to Island paradise which is suddenly interrupted rather violently by scenes of the growing unrest in the urban centers of New Zealand. But he also toys with the audience in a way, offering a point of view perspective from Smith's Which show up later and cast a new light on things. First, he both misdirects and outright withholds certain salient pieces of information Interesting things in this initial expository section of the film. ![]() (There's a bit of elision here, since certain elements like the fact that the island is already equipped with a house are never really discussedĭirector Roger Donaldson, who is credited with pretty much kickstarting New Zealand's then moribund cinema scene with this film, does some Soon replaced by a more serene, atatvistic ambience when Smith spies a gorgeous island in a bay, inquires about who owns it, and ends up Who also co-wrote) shows up before Smith has had a chance to back out of the driveway, mayhem temporarily ensues, though this brief fit of Wife Gloria (Nevan Rowe) crying in the kitchen as their two little daughters craft goodbye letters to their Dad (even this subtext turns outīe at least a bit of misdirection as further information is divulged as the film progresses). But the real import of the scene is the subtext of Strikes which the Prime Minister promises to fight tooth and nail (and gun, as it turns out). This odd combination of plot points is offered from the get go, as Smith watches television reports of huge strikes bringing New Zealand to a halt, ![]() Smith's idyllic refuge ends up colliding rather viciously with a simmering quasi-Fascistic sociopolitical climate that theįilm posits has taken hold of the island nation. Leaves his young family in the wake of his wife's infidelity and who attempts to forge a new life for himself on an isolated island owned by some Might be cheekily described as kind of a blending of certain elements from Thoreau's Walden and Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Neill portrays a man known only as Smith, a kind of New Zealand Everyman who Throughout Sleeping Dogs, he offers a viscerally compelling performance in what was his first feature film starring performance. Let me make up for that oversight now by stating that Sam Neill is not only front and center I had completely neglected to even mention him. ![]() Review and The Commuter 4K Blu-ray review That I realized after I had posted our The Commuter Blu-ray Sam Neill's role in The Commuter was so perfunctory and underwritten Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, April 16, 2018 ![]()
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