Mean Creek (2004)

RE-view time!

Now, I know you might be thinking, "Elfin April, you haven't watched this movie again in two years?" And the simple answer is, "Le no." I probably put it on my Zip list as soon as it came out on DVD, but it didn't arrive until recently.

As I recall, I saw this movie not only because of Caulkin but also because a few select reviews sold me on it. Occasionally, when I do not know about a movie in advance, the right review can sell me on seeing it. The problem with many of the reviews I read, however, was that they gave away the film's entire plot.

George's accidental (or not-so-accidental, depending on your point of view) death doesn't happen in the beginning of the film, and the film isn't solely about the fallout. George's death is the climax: there's a lot of rising action before it that centres around the group's ever-shifting opinion about George. Making the plan, calling off the plan, who's in, who's out - all of these things are in flux for most of the movie.

Peck's villain is the most eerily, true-to-life portrayal in the movie precisely because he gets what being a bully is all about - that he's a lonely kid with problems and no foreseeable solutions. The best part of his performance, however, is the way neither him nor the direction nor the screenplay allow us to forget the default setting. Even when he moves to mocking Marty's dead dad, you can see how much the betrayal has gotten to him. His voice has a too-casual anger to it, but his tearful, hurt look is unmistakable.

To have a prank turn fatal isn't a concept that Estes introduced to film. His exploration of it, nevertheless, is bar none. The shock, the rushed yet reluctant burial, the acceptance of consequences . . . it all feels so natural in a completely artificial situation.

But, really, it is all about Caulkin. Right at the end there, when the detective leaves the room, and he knows he doesn't have to say or do anything, when he turns to the camera and slowly, deliberately announces that he has never seen Rocky so out of control in his life - that's when the movie socks you in the gut. You see him, in the span of 30 or 45 seconds, age years, decades. The child is gone in a instant.

Because I wrote the original review before I graded movies, let's grade this one now: A