All in the FamilyBy John DeSando, "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
Occasionally a crime drama satisfies with its plot turns and emotional intensity (which implies ample characterization). Such a thriller is Animal Kingdom, an apt title for an almost true story depicting an '80s Melbourne crime family with the strengths and weaknesses of an organization driven by smart but fallible operatives. It's headed by a crime grandma called "Smurf"(Jacki Weaver in an Oscar-worthy performance), who is more Oedipus's mother than Ma Barker.
The opening scene is memorable: Seventeen-year-old J (James Frecheville) is on a couch with his overdosed mother, who is attended by EMTs while J distractedly watches an inane quiz show. He seems to have inherited the decaying, selfish nature of the family?as indeed most of the film displays the inexorable nature and nurture dynamic.
She dies, and he is given to Grandma, not the safest place for a growing boy as his felonious uncles reside there under the watchful nurturing of smiling, deadly grandma.
Director/writer David Michod has crafted a seedy family and cops generally corruptible or gone wild, with the exception of Detective Leckie (Guy Pearce), who himself is ambivalent by being both paternal to the ensnared J and ambitious to get to the family through him.
This animal kingdom has few good denizens on either side of justice. They mostly are surviving with the Darwinian jungle law of the fittest. When a girlfriend needs to be taken out because of what she knows, Uncle Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) does it so quietly and effectively that he out scares the loud assault rifles I heard last night in an overheated thriller, The Town, directed by Ben Affleck.
The denouement may be disappointing with its predictable movements, but it satisfies in anyone who sees that revenge, no matter what, is not profitable.
Although the going is slow through much of this gritty film, the low boil helps flesh out the interesting characters, all fitting citizens of the Animal Kingdom.
John DeSando co-hosts It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee for WCBE 90.5. The shows can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com