20131001: Drama Review--The Vicious Kind

The Vicious Kind

1. Production Fundamentals; reception
1. American live action feature length film, 2009, rated R, 92 minutes, drama, comedy.
2. IMDB: 6.9/10.0 from 4,523 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 70% on the meter; 68% liked it from 1,922 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: average for 3.5 of 5.0 from 348,037 viewers.
5. Written and directed by Lee Toland Krieger.
6. Starring: Adam Scott as Caleb Sinclair, Brittany Snow as Emma Gainsborough, Alex Frost as Peter Sinclair, JK Simmons as Donald Sinclair, Jordan Berkov as Hannah.


2. Setup, Plot
1. Caleb and Peter are Donald's sons.  Emma is Peter's girlfriend.  Caleb reluctantly agrees to pick the two of them up to come to Thanksgiving dinner at Donald's house.


2. The drive to the father's house is long and uneasy.  Donald is more than a bit earthy and gruff.  Emma is a psych major and has some skills with putting up with difficult people.


3. Caleb broke up with Hannah in the recent past, and is still quite angry about it.  Unfortunately, Emma reminds Caleb of Hannah.


4. Emma and the three men get to know each other.  Emma cheated on her past boyfriend to be with Peter, and Caleb hopes Emma won't hurt Peter in the same way.


5. 'Trespass on my property again and I will shoot you,' Donald said to Caleb.  Great stuff.


6. Caleb starts falling for Emma.  Sure feels like rebound stupidity to me.  Caleb more or less starts stalking Emma.  Peter spends time and money on a prostitute, but this does not seem to help.  He gets into a bar fight because he thought a man touched a woman inappropriately.


7. This is clearly not a comedy, even though it is billed as one. It is a psychological drama about Caleb's inability to deal with his parents breaking up.  Donald tells Emma (since Peter would not) about Diane, his wife.  He claimed that Diane cheated on him, and that she went into the hospital and died shortly thereafter, when Peter was about ten.  Caleb visited Diane in the hospital, and avoided talking to Donald after that.  One hopes this gets resolved before the end of the film.


8. Peter lost his virginity to Emma during the visit, but she seems not to be satisfied with him.  Caleb and Emma do it at Donald's house, which seems awfully stupid, what with both Donald and Peter in the house.  Miraculously, they get away with that (or so they thought), and Caleb tells Emma about what really happened.  As he leaves Emma, he immediately goes into a long overdue heart-to-heart discussion with Donald. 


9. Peter misses all this, and goes back to Emma, and they try again.  Donald drives them back to the train station to school for the ride back to school.  Donald has a not very clear talk with Peter before they depart, but they have warmer feelings as a result.


10. So, the film ends with a convenient web of lies in place.  The best part, perhaps, was that Donald and Caleb reconcile.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Family dysfunction leads to partial reconciliation.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Well-lit, usually well-framed and focused.


2. Sound: 8/10 Incidental music that comes as a harsh, loud surprise.  Voice sound levels often drop quite low.


3. Acting: 10/10 Good.  I enjoyed the performances of J. K. Simmons, Adam Scott, and Brittany Snow the most.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Moves along nicely early on.  It drags a bit in the middle, but comes to a reasonable, if not good, conclusion.