Review: Stone

3.0

0.0 (0)

The account of a good man gone bad – or a bad man masked in a very good disguise? Read our review of the movie Stone and let us know what you think about it.

A young wife confronts her husband and declares; “You keep my soul locked in a dungeon”… the story of a prison employee and Gerald “Stone” Creeson then continues some 30 years later.

“Stone” (Norton) is a seemingly perverted, street wise deviant and clever manipulator. He is coming to the end of a long sentence for arson. (An arson which saw his grandparents burned to death).

De Niro is prison parole eligibility officer Jack Mabrey. It is Jacks task to determine Stones mental state and judge whether he can be released. But herein lies the main question to be asked of Mabreys character - is he in the moral position to be the judge and hand Stone Creeson his early freedom?

In this slow burning psychological drama the two men battle a moralistic and spiritual war, playing mind games with each other that confront inner demons of the past and present. Throughout, there is an underlying sense that something quite terrible is about happen.

Via prison telephone conversations Stone and his disturbingly flirtatious wife Lucetta (Jovovich) devise a plan to manipulate Mabrey and bring about an early prison release. Initially Mabrey avoids dealing with the extremely convincing Mrs Creeson, but after repeated attempts she manages to seduce him.

Does Mabrey have the ethical superiority to actually judge Creeson? Or does his apparent moral fibre and righteousness begin to unravel?

During one heated lecture Stone suggests that Mabrey “take his life and blow it all up”. Tear away all those life-long falsehoods and stop pretending who he appears to be and be honest about who he really is… and here, Stone does have a good point worth analysing.

Although the film's end-game slams into a wall of unanswered questions and plot holes, Stone is worth watching for Norton’s standout performance alone, but we get the feeling that acting heavy-weight De Niro is just filling time between projects.

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