|
"All the Little Animals" 
Rated
R 1 hour, 51
minutes Lions Gate Films
Directed
by Jeremy Thomas
Starring:
Daniel
Benzali
John
Hurt
Christian
Bale
James
Faulkner
Warnings:
Violence toward the innocent
[OCT.
12, 2000]
A
recent release on video, "All the Little Animals," is a
quality story about a mentally handicapped young man who escapes
from danger and temporarily finds happiness, only to have danger
once again seek to destroy him and take all that belongs to him.
|
|
 Shot
in the UK, this quiet, under-appreciated film caught my eye on the
shelf because of the two principal actors, Daniel Benzali and John
Hurt. There is one copy of this video at your local video store,
and it hasn’t really moved off the shelf, probably because of
the namby-pamby name of this film. But the name shouldn’t fool
you — this is a good movie.
Christian
Bale plays a character named Bobby Platt, who suffers from a brain
injury he received as a child while being struck by a car. The
movie opens just after the death of his mother, his only human
friend. After the funeral, his bad-guy stepfather (Daniel Benzali),
whom he calls "The Fat," threatens him with banishment
to an insane asylum if he doesn’t sign papers transferring the
family fortune over to him. Bobby refuses, and for his refusal
"The Fat" executes his pet mouse and repeats his asylum
threat. Bobby responds by running away.
He
hitchhikes across country and meets up with eccentric Mr. Summers
(John Hurt), a hermit who befriends animals, buries roadkill and
curses people. Summers invites him to stay, and together they
build a new life. Unfortunately, Bobby’s past-life problems
still survive, and Summers helps him plan to remedy his previous
dilemma.
[to
top of second column]
|
There
is much to like in this film. The plot is very different, very diverse
and quite unpredictable. . There is a great deal of adventure through
the beautiful countryside of the UK, and the filming captures that
beauty perfectly. The acting is superb. Bald-headed Benzali makes an
incredibly bad bad guy who had me utterly hating him. John Hurt always
delivers, and Christian Bale was convincing in his role as the misfit
Bobby. Jeremy Thomas directed this movie in such a fashion that you
find yourself experiencing the scenes along with the characters.
Although
the budget wasn’t high on this film (it couldn’t have been too low
— they wrecked a Bentley making the final scenes), the production
quality is intact, and this is not your usual imported B-quality film.
One
of the employees of one of the local video stores believes that there
is an inverse ratio that governs the quality of films: The movies with
fewer copies on the shelf often are the best movies. In the case of
"All the Little Animals," I believe this to be true. I
recommend this movie and reward it with 3½ stars.
[midge]
midge@lincolndailynews.com
|
