Review - Faster

Faster
Starring:
Dwayne Johnson
Billy Bob Thorton

Introduction
For
having a fairly simple plot, the movie works quite well for what it is.
I was surprised by the cinematography in the movie and that despite
some of its cliche techniques in the story, you are left until pretty
much the end wondering what is actually going to happen next.

Acting
The
acting in this is (like everything else in this movie) straight to the
point, next to no deviation and always consistent. This movie sets out
with a singular plot and each character is a sort of representation, so
much so that most of the characters don’t even have actual names. For
instance, Johnson’s character is only referred to as “Driver” at the
beginning and he is never actually called by name ever in the film. The
same goes for Thorton’s character who is simple “Cop” and sometimes
referred to as “Detective” by his colleagues.
Dwayne Johnson is the
focus of the movie, someone who is let of prison, is tough as nails and
has only one purpose - to have vengeance on those who killed his
brother. Johnson barely even talks in the movie, his lines probably
able to be counted on your fingers. However, he does portray his
character quite well. There is some depth to the character which is
only alluded to every once in a while until part way through the film
showing us what his motive is. His character is extremely to the point,
he only has one purpose in life and that is all that you get from this
character. However, he is forced to make some decisions along the way
and there is an inner conflict beneath the muscle and anger and even
some good, some justice, so it’s played fairly interestingly.

Billy
Bob Thorton is a crack addict cop who is ten days from retirement and
is assigned to track down “Driver”. Unfortunately, it’s a fairly empty
character and only really starts having any depth in the last quarter of
the movie. There isn’t a whole lot to connect to, other than he has a
failed marriage and has a son who can’t play baseball. Though there are
a few redeeming scenes in which Thorton is able to act some and there
is that sad realization within himself of certain things.

There
are several other characters including Carla Gugino who is a cop as
well. This character has absolutely no depth and is just a cop putting
together the pieces. Not much to go by for an actor. Another
character, the “Killer” played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, is hired to kill
“Driver” by an anonymous employer. This character has probably the
most background, having allusions to him being somewhat crippled as a
child, yet striving to overcome all challenges. However, this makes him
a pretty boring character and the acting is very flat on Cohen’s part.
He really seems like he’s just acting and never plays with these
different background traits and motives.

Cinematography
This
movie really plays with the lighting, camera angles and sizes and is
actually quite impressive. The visual play makes up for the lack of
depth in the story and characters with a lot of visual references to
driving. Some clever angles including an overhead pan of a car where
the yellow dividing line on the road acts like a speedometer as the
camera pans around, making the line appear to move up in a left to right
motion. The lighting again is very well done including the last few
shots which make them somewhat memorable simply because of the way
they’re lit. If anything, the camera tells more story than the actual
story does in this movie as it goes through showing a change of sorts in
“Driver” with some almost religious undertones about redemption and
forgiveness.
The soundtrack was composed by none other than Clint
Mansell and as always is a great soundtrack to listen to. The
soundtrack has an excellent choice of existing songs and it’s own music,
lending a hand to the visuals in telling the story and helping to
define the characters, making up for some of the lack of depth in them.
Editing
overall was fairly standard and not much for CGI was needed or used in
this film, which is a refreshing change from the constant onslaught of
fake graphics to make films “visually stunning.” Though a standard
editing job, timing was thought out fairly well and things work in the
order that they are spliced together, with fairly successful flashbacks
to help make us understand the story, but not know it until the end.

Story
As
I stated earlier, the story is very simple, but a lot of times a
complex story ruins a movie, especially one like this. Many story
writers today don’t have a concept of the core story, of beginning,
middle, end and therefore get lost in this twisted and confusing maze of
riddles and plot devices that end up making the film inconsistent.
Where this movie has a very simple plot (man is let out of prison after
10 years and immediately goes to have vengeance on those who killed his
brother) you don’t get lost in this twisted maze of irrelevancy. There
are only really a few instances of the plot that were completely
unnecessary to the movie and could have gone without. There is half
decent anticipation where it is more than just about a man killing other
people for revenge and the build up to each mini-climax is well done
and then the final climax is good as well. There is some
unbelievability to the movie, namely in the form of “Driver” and it
makes you wonder if there is some sort of unseen fantastical element,
especially with the religious undertones to it, but they are never
brought up and simply makes it a movie where you have to suspend your
disbelief for a short instant so that the plot can continue.
The film
does have some twist and turns, nothing rivaling Hitchcock or anything,
but enough to keep you guessing until the last portion of the movie.
Surprisingly, by the time we reach the end, some meaning has been
gleaned from some of the undertones of the film, including some messages
of redemption (though no where near on the scale of Shawshank
Redemption) but more than your typical vengeance driven action film.

Conclusion
Overall
a half decent action film which is better than most of the dribble
produced. Though nothing exceptional and if you come into it with low
or uncertain expectations, you may find it mildly surprising that there
is some quality to the film and is worth a watch at some point in time.

5.5/10