★ 6 / 10
The last twenty minutes of this rather enliven
CinemaSerf
The last twenty minutes of this rather enliven it, but otherwise it's rather dull story of "Brad" (Sean Penn) who is rather in awe of his criminal "Dad Brad"…
The last twenty minutes of this rather enliven it, but otherwise it's rather dull story of "Brad" (Sean Penn) who is rather in awe of his criminal "Dad Brad" (Christopher Walken) and hopes to one day emulate what he sees as his glamorous lifestyle. One such day arrives when the father agrees to plan a robbery for his son to execute only things don't go to plan and just about everyone discovers just how vicious the older man can be when it comes to his own self-preservation. Most of this is really just an excuse for Penn to wander around shirtless showing off his pecs whilst a few variations of Madonna's "Live to Tell" serenade us from the sidelines. The two women who feature here - Mary Stuart Masterson's "Terry" and Millie Perkins's "Julie" make little impact on the Penn family beauty pageant (his brother Chris also features as his younger sibling "Tommy") and though Walken emanates just an hint of menace as the plot thickens, it's all just too little too late by the end when I really wasn't bothered about this repetitive tale of a dysfunctional family with testicles where their brains ought to be. It's based on a real life family in Philadelphia, and maybe that notoriety is all that helps this remain memorable. Neither the writing nor the vaguely pugilistic Penn and his John Wayne walk can do that.
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★ 8 / 10
Will Mercilessly Break Your Heart!
mackey3000
AT CLOSE RANGE is one of the bleakest, coldest, scariest, and most depressing films I have ever seen...it was made even more depressing when I learned at the…
AT CLOSE RANGE is one of the bleakest, coldest, scariest, and most depressing films I have ever seen...it was made even more depressing when I learned at the end that it was based on a true story. A very young but already magnetic Sean Penn is heartbreakingly convincing and predictably terrific in the lead role of a tough but generally good kid with family problems that range from a poor home with his mother and grandmother to having a lowlife, evil-to- the-asshole scumbag for a father. As the father, Christopher Walken, in what may be the greatest performance of his career, gives one of the most despicable, hateful, and frightening in it's believability performances in the history of film. He is the epitome of an evil person who has turned amoral with a lot of practice. I can't remember the last time I hated a character in a film as much as I despised Walken. The remarkable final confrontation scene between him and Penn, after a tragedy has happened, is an example of how limitless the raw power that film can evoke truly is when it is in the hands of amazing character actors who get inside their characters in such an awe-inspiring way that they make you feel like you are watching a documentary. The scene makes you so sad and angry at the same time that it just breaks your f**king heart! It is one of the very best scenes of both actors' stellar careers, and it is a scene that I'm sure will be shown every time either actor receives a Career Achievement Award in their future. Mary-Stuart Masterson, a talented actress who unfortunately seems to have gotten lost in the Bermuda Triangle after FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, is also touching and convincing as Penn's underage girlfriend. After watching GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS and now this, I think James Foley is clearly one of the modern masters when it comes to directing and setting the stage for great acting. It's not an entertaining movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a powerful, honest, unmercifully human one that will be hard to forget. B+
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Christopher Wlaken and Sean Penn... wow. great movie oh and soundtrack Live to Tell by madonna... my score forr this movie is 8/10