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Movie Review: “The Killing Of A Sacred Deer” – A Love-Hate Relationship, Part One

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Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

This film is just bizarre. The title should make you immediately suspect. The score is bizarre. Orchestral strings are unrecognizable because of the ear-splitting isolated screeching vibrations.

The acting is bizarre. Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman are the draws, Alicia Silverstone offers a familiar face, but that is as warm as the character development gets. The acting of the entire cast is completely, absolutely, totally thoroughly devoid of emotion. Except for maybe 2 seconds of screen time out of the whole film. And awkward. Conversations about puberty and masturbation are discussed with utter neutrality in circumstances which would otherwise be mortifying.

This is art to some people. But I think art still needs a story to strike a chord. The story here is of Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell), a cardiologist with his perfect wife (Nicole Kidman) and his perfect life – two kids and a dog, a gorgeous home and a successful career. But the telltale signs of a secret become evident almost immediately when we meet Martin (Barry Keoghan), an older teenage boy, who is very familiar with Steven in a very unsettling way. It seems deeply, wrongly intimate.

What comes to light is that Steven operated on Martin’s father, who died during the procedure. More of what comes to light is an insinuation that Steven has deeper issues, which he may or may not use alcohol to mask. But beyond that, absolutely nothing comes to light.

In some evil-justice-possessed manner, Martin inflicts the family with some kind of unexplainable malady without ever touching them or breaking the law. And Martin tells Steven how to make the curse stop, but only in a manner where Steven must inflict the same loss upon himself that Martin has suffered through the death of his father.

I suppose the film is making a point about the impossibility of justice in the case of malpractice and wrongful death. Or maybe the film is making no point at all and just wants to take an issue that is humanly impossible to find a comforting resolution, twist it up in psychotic emotionlessness and telepathic torture, and then roll the credits.

This is my love-hate with films that wander so violently between art and making a point, that they often seem like they accomplish neither. So to be quite honest, I thought I was firmly convinced about my critique. In an effort to be somewhat neutral myself, I added a ½ star just to combat my own obvious bias and to allow for the fact that, yes, rumor has it that this is a known style of the notable Yorgos Lanthimos (director, producer, co-writer). So maybe my naivete about his directing powers are blinding me to fashionable quality, but honestly, I am convinced that there is undoubtedly a very small population who will be glad they went to the theater to see this.

However, in spite of all this, there is one more surprising twist in this plot of movie reviews. Later, the next week, I screened a different film, but eerily similar in style and psychology. This time, however, my initial response was completely different and I couldn’t help but ponder the perplexity of why I so strongly disliked one and yet just as strongly connected to the other.

So the saga continues…If you care to read my review of “Bitch – A Love-Hate Relationship, Part Two,” you might find yourself sufficiently intrigued to watch both and tell me what you think about the comparison.

In select theaters Friday, November 10th

 

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1 Comment

  1. […] similar in style and psychology as another film which I reviewed recently. You can read that review here if you like. Admittedly, I puzzled over my love-hate response, strongly preferring “Bitch” over […]

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