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The Proposition
The Proposition is an exercise in how poor storytelling can destroy a truckload of promise. Media students take note.
The Proposition is something of a shame. Blessed with more experienced direction it could have been excellent, but in the hands of unknown John Hillcoat, it's destined to leave your mind faster than Chantelle's autobiography. Enjoy the scenery and eclectic score, but don't expect to be gripped. I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: - some pretty brutal violence, some of it with no warning. To enjoy this film you should: tune in, switch off, drop out.
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It's hard to pin down what's wrong with The Proposition. The performances are solid and it has a unique style - which is
guaranteed to win it favour in my book - but I just couldn't get interested. When I should have been gripped, I was
drifting off and missing lines of dialogue. Maybe it's because Nick Cave's score is more imposing than his script -
the movie is clearly more about the aesthetics rather than the plot. The story really doesn't make any kind of plausible
sense at all - it's coherent, just juvenile in its construction - the character development is limp and the ending is ...
erm ... poetic. And by poetic, I mean bollocks. The initial premise is that Ray Winstone sends criminal Guy Pearce off
to kill his older brother Danny Huston in order to save his younger brother Richard Wilson from execution - no, not
Victor Meldrew, another Richard Wilson. Even that axiom seems monumentally stupid to me. It's all very well giving a
movie a feel of its own and including stunning Australian scenery (which is done to great effect), but if you can't back
it up with a believable story, you're on a hiding to nothing.
Guy Pearce leads a cast of stars who gravitate towards unusual movies - Ray Winstone, Emily Watson and John Hurt all have a
string of eccentric credits to their names. All the performances are a touch intense, which suits the brooding mood, and
makes the one moment of slapstick humour all the more surprising and effective when it happens. Yes, The Proposition has
a lot going for it, it's just let down by a rather detached feel to the storytelling. The movie passes without it ever
really entering your head, like a music video might. Come next year, you'll swear blind you never saw a movie called
The Proposition, though when pushed you may remember the sudden and unexpected moments of violence, which were realistic
enough to shock me from my movie-induced reverie, at least for a moment or two. If only it could have continued.
