Susan Granger’s review of “Stone” (Overture Films)
Propelled by two top-notch actors, this intense prison drama turns into an ambiguously tortured noir thriller about compromised ethics.
Taciturn, time-hardened Jack Mabrey (Robert De Niro) is a soon-to-be retired Michigan corrections officer whose last case forces him into a battle-of-wits with jittery, troublesome, manipulative Gerald ‘Stone’ Creeson (Edward Norton), who bluntly questions, “Who are you to sit in judgment of me?”
Stone is a fast-talking, remorseless arsonist whose schoolteacher girl-friend Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) is determined to get him an early release from prison. Deviously conniving to get her psychopathic lover paroled as quickly as possible, this sexy, seductive vixen cleverly insinuates herself into irascible Jack’s life, preying on his long-repressed insecurity and spiritual guilt involving his reclusive, relentlessly religious wife Madylyn (Frances Conroy), who once made the mistake of asking for a divorce.
It takes two adroit actors to handle all the shifting emotions dealt out by screenwriter Angus MacLachlan (“Junebug”) – and both De Niro and Norton are more than up to the challenge, orchestrated by director John Curran (“We Don’t Live Here Anymore,” “The Painted Veil”), who delves deeply into the pseudo-psychological, overly-talky, dysfunctional concept that’s amplified by Jon Brion’s relentlessly percussive soundtrack.
With his hair in cornrows and an exaggerated street accent, creepy badass Norton is far more compelling to watch than De Niro, his more celebrated co-star, who spends much of the time subtly grappling with a load of emotional baggage – shown in flashbacks involving sin, guilt and a loveless marriage, believing, “God speaks in mysterious ways.”
But the greatest surprise comes from Milla Jovovich, the Ukrainian-born former teen supermodel, best known as the butt-kicking, zombie-fighting amnesiac in four “Resident Evil” films. Utilizing her bodacious naked body, she joins Edward Norton in becoming a highly-effective emotional terrorist.
Trivia note: much of the filming took place at the State Prison of Southern Michigan, which at one time was the world’s largest walled prison. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Stone” is a superbly crafted, smartly acted, suspense-filled 7, disappointing only in the unsettling, supposedly redemptive conclusion.