Are you in the mood for some really dark fare? Then you’ll get your money’s worth with your Netflix subscription, because the dark revenge thriller “Eye for an Eye” with Christian Bale, Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson is now available there.
It doesn’t always have to be peace, joy and happiness, but can also go to the substance? Then the revenge thriller “An Eye for an Eye” is just the thing for you. Director Scott Cooper (“The Memorable Case of Mr Poe”) has proven himself in recent years to be a master of deeply dark material in which classic notions of masculinity are often smashed to pieces. It’s no different in “An Eye for an Eye”, which boasts plenty of star power and is available to stream now on Netflix’s subscription service.
THIS IS WHAT “EYE FOR AN EYE” IS ABOUT
Rodney Baze (Casey Affleck) fought for his country in Iraq, but the war cut deep scars into his soul. The former soldier just doesn’t feel like humping at the local steel mill for hours every day anymore to somehow make ends meet. So does his older brother Russell (Christian Bale), who has just been released from prison after drunkenly causing a fatal car accident.
Russell tries everything to keep Rodney from going off the rails, but he can’t do anything about it when the latter enters an illegal street fight under the mediation of dubious bookie John Petty (Willem Dafoe). When Rodney doesn’t stick to the agreed-upon marching orders and wins instead of losing, he has to deal with the extremely violent Curtis DeGroat (Woody Harrelson) and his brutal gang…
DARK TO THE CORE
The official FILMSTARTS review gave “Eye for an Eye” a very solid 3.5 out of 5 possible stars. Editor-in-chief Christoph Petersen wrote in his conclusion: “Christian Bale delivers one of the strongest performances of his career, but the unnecessarily ponderous plot can’t keep up with the consistently fantastic actors and actresses.
In the case of “An Eye for an Eye” you should by no means expect a lurid high-speed actioner of the “96 Hours” brand. Instead, the revenge drama is first and foremost a portrait of a city in decay, where the American dream has vanished into thin air and all the characters are forced into sheer disillusionment. Hope rarely germinates; a large part of the people have long since given up on their own future anyway.
Scott Cooper repeatedly subverts audience expectations when he offers up the elements of classic revenge cinema without playing them out in a conventional way. Instead, there are always solid punches in the pit of the stomach that show how brutal this corner of the world is where “Eye for an Eye” is set. Due to the decelerated pace, the violence often seems all the stronger because it is shown with a cruel matter-of-factness as one of the few (perhaps even the last) constants in this world.
The real highlight of “An Eye for an Eye”, however, is the acting. In the lead role, Christian Bale definitively shows “that he is not only one of the greatest, but also one of the strongest acting stars of his generation.” But the rest of the ensemble, with Casey Affleck, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Saldana, Woody Harrelson and Forest Whitaker, is also simply magnificent. You’ll gladly forgive “An Eye for an Eye” for being a little slow on the uptake.
