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Death Sentence If you watched the trailer to Death Sentence and decided that it was an updating of Michael Winner's Death Wish (1974) starring Charles Bronson, you'd be half right.
The movie Death Sentence is loosely based on the book of the same name, which was written in 1975 by Brian Garfield, and was a sequel to his 1972 novel Death Wish. There are thematic similarities between the movies, about ordinary people pushed to extraordinary acts of vengeance, but the new film by James Wan is a more sophisticated affair despite the hyperviolence and blood.
James Wan is the young Australian director, who together with co-writer and actor Leigh Whannell, created one of the most interesting horror franchises in recent years with the tightly plotted sleeper hit Saw. Wan has acted as producer on the sequels and directed Dead Silence (2007), which under-performed at the box office.
Death Sentence sees Wan broadening his range to encompass the violent action genre. Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume, a conservative bean counter at an insurance company. He has a happy, unexciting life with a beautiful wife Helen (Kelly Preston) and two teenaged boys, Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) and Lucas (Jordan Garrett). While driving Brendan home from a hockey game, Nick pulls into a gas station to fill up. Brendan wanders into the store to buy a drink when an apparent robbery takes place. The owner is shot and Brendan has his throat slashed. Nick races to the scene succeeding in pulling the mask off one of the perpetrators, Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary).
Despite rushing him to hospital Brendan dies. Joe Darley is quickly apprehended, but the only evidence is Nick's eyewitness testimony. With a lengthy conviction looking unlikely, Nick announces to the court that he's no longer sure that Joe Darley was the killer after all, and Joe is released. Nick follows him, and after wrestling with his conscience for a while, attacks him and accidentally kills him.
Troubled by his actions, Nick's only consolation is that his son's killer is now dead. Unfortunately, Joe's big bad-ass brother Billy (Garrett Hedlund) is out for revenge with his street gang of tattooed hoodlums. After surviving an attack on his life, things spiral out of control as the revenge attacks escalate, threatening not just Nick but the rest of his family too.
Detective Wallis (Aisha Tyler) suspects that Nick is responsible for the death of Joe, but has no evidence to arrest him, only a gut feeling, preferring to wait and see what develops, which is a boatload of mayhem and bloody murder.
What is surprising about Wan's movie is the sensitive portrayal of Nick: utterly astounded by his own actions, but discovers that he's become a runaway train and can't apply the brakes. He wants to stop, he wants someone to stop him, but no-one does, and the cycle of violence continues.
Kevin Bacon is at the top of his game, and following well-recived performances in Mystic River (2003) and The Woodsman (2004) he can finally lay the ghost of Footloose (1984) to rest. Bacon plays Nick as someone who is terrified to discover that he can kill, but doesn't know how to put the monster back in the box.
Wan's directorial skills have developed considerably, and some of the best scenes in the film are the quieter moments when very little is happening, but Wan manages to make them riveting. Things go slightly awry in the final reel, when Nick purchases a small arsenal and goes after the Darley gang in a big way. The movie becomes a relentless shoot 'em up with plenty of bloodshed. Up until that point, Death Sentence is an intelligent look at violent revenge.
Those with a sharp eye should keep a look out for the name of the TV in the movie's final moments. That's all I'm saying.
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