Movie Review: Oliver Stone's "Savages"

Hi everyone!

Last week I gave a glowing review of Don Winslow's novel "Savages," the basis of which forms the backbone of Oliver Stone's new film of the same name that released this weekend. I loved the book. I only liked the movie...and I really really wanted to love it.

Here's what's good:

1. Salma Hayek. Ms. Hayek is brilliant and understated as Elena Sanchez, the somewhat reluctant boss of the Baja Cartel. With saucy wit in abundance and a fair bit of pathos thrown in, the sultry Latina actress dominates every scene she's in...and, for that matter, every scene she's not in. While Elena is certainly an important presence in Mr. Winslow's novel, she appears on the page in more of a supportive role. In the film, Elena is the black widow spinning a complicated web while calling the shots in a hyper-masculine environment. You can't help but smile whenever Ms. Hayek's Elena graces the screen. She has never looked better.
2. Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson. Their characters, Chon--the battle-hardened Iraq war veteran--and Ben--the pot-growing environmental wannabe do-gooder--are what drive the movie forward. Both certainly have their share of screen appeal. They are fun to watch even though no one will be blown away by their acting.
3. The cinematography. "Savages" is big and gaudy and consistently beautiful to look at. The color palates are all over the place--from bright and sunny and very SoCal to grainy cinema verite. What I really liked was the contrast between the gorgeous Laguna Beach vistas to the blood-soaked grimy warehouses where Benicio del Toro and company enact their drug-fueled tortures. And the soundtrack is great too!
4. Benicio del Toro. Crazy, comic, and super-cool, Mr. del Toro (along with Ms. Hayek) is what makes this an almost-great film. I felt myself tense up every time he was onscreen because I never knew which way he was going to go. 
5. Blake Lively. Okay, okay, I may catch some flak for this but Ms. Lively is simply radiant. While her acting isn't particularly impressive, Ms. Lively as Chon and Ben's girlfriend "O" lights up the screen with her distinctive SoCal beauty. I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

Here's what's not so good:

1. The ending. I won't give it away but suffice it to say that fans of the book (like me) will probably not be pleased with how Oliver Stone has chosen to end this story. And this doesn't pertain just to the film's final ten minutes. Around the 1 hr. 35 minutes point (of a 2 hr. 10 minute running time) things start to go haywire...and not in a good way. What I particularly loved about the book is its relative simplicity and its economical narrative style. This sadly isn't the case here. Mr. Stone veers radically from the original novel about 95 minutes in, adding more plots and double-crosses that not only don't make sense but reduce the film to a puzzling, disappointing mess, something not far off the mark from the "Fast and Furious" franchise, which I don't mean as a compliment. With about ten minutes left, you think 'okay, we're getting back on track here' but then Mr. Stone decides to veer once again from the book's original ending, leaving me irritated and frankly a little pissed off as the final credits roll. I've been trying to figure out why he chose to change things up so radically at the end to little avail. Perhaps he wanted to give John Travolta  more screen time or bring the story around to a more traditional Hollywood ending? I don't know. It's not a happy ending exactly, but it wraps everything up a little too neatly.
2. The decision to leave Uma Thurman's character on the cutting room floor. Ms. Thurman is purported to have played Blake Lively's character's mother, but all her scenes were cut so what we're left with are a couple passing references to her and nothing else. The relationship and flaky banter between O and her mother in the book frequently had me in stitches. I can only imagine what Ms. Thurman brought to the role. I can certainly understand why the character was excised given the film's already two-hour-plus running time, but without seeing the vaguely troubled relationship O has with her mother, we don't really get a sense of O's identity. Are we supposed to be sympathetic toward her? As is, O remains a cipher. She's beautiful to look at but there's very little depth to her. She demonstrates a certain degree of strength in captivity and it certainly isn't hard to figure out why Chon and Ben are so physically attracted to her, but beyond the surface there's a curious lack of substance. Hopefully, Mr. Stone will restore Ms. Thurman in the Blu-Ray/DVD Director's Cut of the film as has been hinted. 

So, yes...I recommend "Savages" if for no other reason than the film is visually splendid to look at and it provides some powerhouse summer entertainment without really adding up to much in the end. But maybe that's all we want from summer movies anyway--an escape from the stifling heat outside. If that's the case, then "Savages" more-or-less fits the bill. I really really wanted to love this film. It's almost great but settles for being merely pretty good. Disappointing.

Ciao.