The Wicker Man

[KLAXXON]

 Nicolas Cage (lord of wars) stars as Detective Edward Malus. A troubled man in search of the missing daughter of an old friend on the mysterious island of summersisle.

The seemingly idyllic island off the mainland is home to a private community who lead a traditional pastoral life under the watchful eye of Matriarch sister Summersisle (Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist). As Malus`s quest for information pits him against the mistrusting locals and their baffling ancient traditions. He becomes immersed in an ever more perplexing mystery. Amidst claims that the girl never even existed. As his search for the truth reaches its horrifying climax. Malus discovers the sickening truth behind the community`s belief system and is drawn inexorably nearer to the place where evil awaits.










It takes a combination of audacity and dumbness to want to remake The Wicker Man. Robin Hardy's 1973 thriller is note-perfect, largely because nothing quite approaches its unsettling tone. At its surface, The Wicker Man looks like something PBS broadcast in the middle of the afternoon when you were a kid. Its happy Scottish fields set askew by suggestive musical numbers, nudity and rampant sociopathy. It's all topped by one of cinema's most horrifying climaxes, both spiritually wounded and visually unique - the emotional equivalent of being hit by a Mack truck.

It's telling of our time that the new Wicker Man begins with characters getting literally hit by a Mack truck. Policeman Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) is haunted by his inability to save a young girl from the collision. At the persuasion of ex-girlfriend Willow (Kate Beahan), Edward travels to the Washington island Summerisle, to investigate the disappearance of Willow's daughter Rowan.

It's here that LaBute, a source of controversy over whether his movies deal with Women's Issues or just Issues With Women, really digs his own grave. The original film had a deeply Christian detective at righteous odds in a Pagan community. The cult's unorthodox practices against traditional notions of decency was a commentary on the divisiveness left after the 1960s. It's a masterpiece about isolation and the human incompatibility that comes with all dogmatic extremism.

This time Summerisle is run by a matriarchal cult of remorseless white women. Men are their slaves. When Edward tries speaking with one, he can only reply by barking. LaBute doesn't even make the islanders friendly, like in the original film. Reformatting The Wicker Man into a critique on contemporary gender attitudes has pertinence. Presenting feminism as a current exclusionary state is the kind of reckless leap a movie without complexity can't justify. As the heroic voice of reason, Edward has no shades of grey. By the time Edward delivers a full force kick to Leelee Sobieski's face, LaBute has played his cards so that viewers have previously had no reason to doubt the detective's basic virtues. The sick moment signals his vigilante attempt to reclaim himself from Summerisle's emasculation.

Even as LaBute (an actor's director, more than a visual stylist) never finds an interesting look to match Robin Hardy's, the strength of Anthony Schaeffer's original Wicker Man screenplay still resonates. LaBute doesn't water it down, but uses it to work through his own disturbance.

Finding its own bizarre path within the original movie's structure, fears that The Wicker Man remake wouldn't live up to its predecessor's weirdness can be put to rest. But it's a different, troubled strangeness - the uncommon sight of a literate studio film extolling messages most literate audiences can't get behind - that makes the movie's whole presence fascinating.












Nicolas Cage ...  Edward Malus
Ellen Burstyn ...  Sister Summersisle
Kate Beahan ...  Sister Willow
Frances Conroy ...  Dr. Moss
Molly Parker ...  Sister Rose / Sister Thorn
Leelee Sobieski ...  Sister Honey
Diane Delano ...  Sister Beech
Michael Wiseman ...  Pete
Erika-Shaye Gair ...  Rowan
Christa Campbell ...  Truck Stop Waitress
Emily Holmes ...  Station Wagon Mom
Zemphira Gosling ...  Station Wagon Girl
Matthew Walker ...  Sea Plane Pilot
Mary Black ...  Sister Oak
Christine Willes ...  Sister Violet






IMDB





Download Torrent