No one have ever doubt in Paul Schrader's capability whose familiar subject is to give a lecture on human nature and how it affected by urban society . Many of his screenplays considered to be the best of 70's and 80's ("Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull", to name a few). However, "The Walker" is a different story. It's kind of movie that can test your tolerance. To all mundane situations and endless dialog that you need to go through, the payback wasn't much as good as you would've expected.
This is Paul Schrader's perfect companion piece to "American Gigolo". Imagine Richard Gere's Julian Kaye got 30 years older, came out of the closet and moved to Washington DC. Carter Page III (Woody Harrelson) is an escort whose job is to companion some aging, high society ladies around town. His best clients are Lynn Locklear (Kristin Scott Thomas), Natalie Van Miter (Lauren Bacall), and Abigail Delorean (Lily Tomlin). But soon after Carter becomes a suspect as murderer to Lynn's secret lover, he realized that how superficial friendship he has is. There might be only him and his boyfriend, Emek (Moritz Bleibtreu), whom he can really rely on.
Made no mistake about it, "The Walker" is a well-crafted film. The production design is neat. Dialogues are sharp and sometime they're mesmerizing. All actors did absolutely good job especially Woody Harrelson who is brilliants as protagonist role. His presence and mannerism really embodied the character he played. And from three women in this film, a Hollywood legend, Lauren Bacall is a standout. Her character is brutally honest and funny to watch.
I can see why people are complaining about the film. They said it's pointless and pretty boring. "The Walker" runs only 108 minutes but it seemed much longer. Well, I do agree. But I have one thing to point out for the audience. I think it was the director's intention to shoot the film. It's an old-school kind of political-drama film used to be in 70's (ie. "Conversation", "Network", "The Parallax View", etc.). What we have here is not a big picture of the whole story but only handful (or one) of character's study.
But, as I said before, the payback wasn't satisfied me. Carter Page III's story is barely intriguing. We knew that he has an issue that he must deal with. But the movie didn't use that opportunity to make us root for him. In the end, it's rather disappointing to see his problems suddenly vanished. I think "The Walker" has strong characterization and witty dialog. So shame that it's destroyed by mediocre plot and sloppy last act.
This is Paul Schrader's perfect companion piece to "American Gigolo". Imagine Richard Gere's Julian Kaye got 30 years older, came out of the closet and moved to Washington DC. Carter Page III (Woody Harrelson) is an escort whose job is to companion some aging, high society ladies around town. His best clients are Lynn Locklear (Kristin Scott Thomas), Natalie Van Miter (Lauren Bacall), and Abigail Delorean (Lily Tomlin). But soon after Carter becomes a suspect as murderer to Lynn's secret lover, he realized that how superficial friendship he has is. There might be only him and his boyfriend, Emek (Moritz Bleibtreu), whom he can really rely on.
Made no mistake about it, "The Walker" is a well-crafted film. The production design is neat. Dialogues are sharp and sometime they're mesmerizing. All actors did absolutely good job especially Woody Harrelson who is brilliants as protagonist role. His presence and mannerism really embodied the character he played. And from three women in this film, a Hollywood legend, Lauren Bacall is a standout. Her character is brutally honest and funny to watch.
I can see why people are complaining about the film. They said it's pointless and pretty boring. "The Walker" runs only 108 minutes but it seemed much longer. Well, I do agree. But I have one thing to point out for the audience. I think it was the director's intention to shoot the film. It's an old-school kind of political-drama film used to be in 70's (ie. "Conversation", "Network", "The Parallax View", etc.). What we have here is not a big picture of the whole story but only handful (or one) of character's study.
But, as I said before, the payback wasn't satisfied me. Carter Page III's story is barely intriguing. We knew that he has an issue that he must deal with. But the movie didn't use that opportunity to make us root for him. In the end, it's rather disappointing to see his problems suddenly vanished. I think "The Walker" has strong characterization and witty dialog. So shame that it's destroyed by mediocre plot and sloppy last act.