Reviewed by Katherine Ramsland
September 4, 2007
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is like most of us. He goes about life trying to succeed, caring for his family and basically being oblivious to the world of gangs and crime that closely intersects many cozy suburbs. But if it's true that one out of every hundred of us are psychopaths, as experts estimate, and that a good percentage of them won't hesitate to harm someone if it brings something to them, then there's a good chance that even the most protected citizen will cross paths with such people.
But Hume does more than cross paths; he crosses swords, and the results are definitely not pretty. He finds that transferring his desire for order from his work as an insurance adjuster to real life isn't all it's cracked up to be. The operative sentiment that structures this film is that those who seek power by imposing artificial order are probably going to get hurt.
 |
| Kevin Bacon Stars in Death Sentence |
In fact, lots of people get hurt in this film, no matter what they're doing or not doing. There are definitely places where it seems all but certain that what just happened is someone's nightmare, and you expect the character wake up. But director James Wan (Saw) goes all the way, and then some.
Not that it's all credible. By the end of this disturbing film, the wealth of bad decisions on practically everyone's part becomes almost surreal, as if no one can think quite that badly. And yet they all do. You want to take them by the hand and say, "Let's start over, and this time we'll use some common sense."
Next Page
default
increase
decrease
email
print