I am not one of the many who have seen the original Straw Dogs so I can’t comment on this film’s inadequacies as a remake, but I can certainly comment on its inadequacies as a standalone end of the summer thriller.
The film begins in Blackwater Mississippi (or backwater as one of the protagonists refers to it) where David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth) are on their way to Amy’s childhood home recently vacated following the death of her father. James is a successful Hollywood screen writer and Amy is an actress. They are coming to Blackwater to fix things up at the house and get away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles so that David can do some writing for his next project about the siege of Stalingrad (foreshadowing perhaps?). Not surprisingly David’s big city ways don’t make much of an impression of the townsfolk and various picking and hazing follows, raping his wife, hanging his cat, leaving him lost in the woods, the usual welcome to the neighborhood stuff. Naturally it all degenerates into a climax of violence and sensationalism.
Now my first thought upon finishing this film was “wow that’s it?” which is how most everyone else in the theater felt. Granted it was slightly satisfying to see David finally grow some balls and show that he could take care of business but what we were given was literally a 20 minute sequence of a gory killing spree and a burning barn, and yes it was really that underwhelming where a burning barn was some sort of a consolation for sitting through an hour and a half of bullshit.
The hour and a half that I mentioned is indeed the majority of the film. It has some interesting moments, especially a drunken southern James Woods, who in my opinion stole the show. There is also a creepy rape scene accompanied by old time music that is in my opinion slightly unnecessary. Sure the rape was part of the overall escalation of events in the story, but Amy who gets brutally raped by two people that she grew up with her entire life no less, chooses not to tell David about it. Really, you wouldn’t tell your husband that you were raped? I find that hard to believe even if he is a giant pussy. Which makes me feel like Rod Lurie threw it in the film just for the sake of adaptation and keeping with the source material.
Despite all of this I would be willing to look past all the bullshit if the ending wasn’t so short. I mean there is only 20 minutes of actual excitement. There are a few cringe worthy moments such as an interesting scene with a bear trap and some nail gun shenanigans but these moments would be better suited to a horror or slasher film where the audience is expecting a sensational gory ending and not a “thriller”. Honestly, were it not for the last sequence of this film you couldn’t even really call it a thriller at all, unless somehow James Woods beating up a mentally handicapped man is considered thrilling.
Overall this film was underwhelming and boring as hell. Don’t waste your money.
1 out of 5
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