{"id":4234,"date":"2010-10-26T11:01:04","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T17:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=4234"},"modified":"2010-10-26T11:01:04","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T17:01:04","slug":"movie-review-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=4234","title":{"rendered":"Movie review: Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\""STONE<\/p>\n

Robert De Niro<\/strong> and\u00a0Ed Norton<\/strong> reunite in the prison drama\u00a0Stone.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Maggie Scott<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Robert De Niro is unquestionably one of America\u2019s finest actors; and we\u2019ve been privileged to see him on occasion in combination with two other great actors: Al Pacino and Sean Penn.<\/p>\n

Now, with their sophomore effort, we can hail a new pairing that has an electricity that can jumpstart any film: De Niro and Edward Norton.\u00a0 A leading duo\u00a0 in\u00a0 2001’s The Score, <\/em>they are on powerful display, again, in the new drama, Stone<\/em>, from director John Curran and writer Angus MacLachlan.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an easy story to digest at one sitting.\u00a0 The action is filtered through ideas of, and characterizations dealing with, isolation, guilt, truth, faith.\u00a0 The primary setting is in a prison.\u00a0 But it’s soon obvious that it is not just a literal imprisonment that the story is dealing with, but also with the ways in which people imprison themselves in their dealings with others and with their conceptions of their lives and of themselves.<\/p>\n

De Niro plays a man who evaluates prison inmates and their readiness for parole.\u00a0 He\u2019s weeks away from retirement, and it\u2019s obvious that he\u2019s burned out and cynical about the work he is doing.\u00a0 From the initial scenes of Jack Mabry interviewing supplicant men seeking their freedom, it is obvious that he\u2019s going through the motions.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t appear to even hear them.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s become a paper shuffler, but a good one; writing up reports the warden praises.\u00a0 Then, one day, in walks Gerald \u201cStone\u201d Creeson (Norton):\u00a0 A man who, at first blush, appears defensive and angry; poorly concealing how desperate he is to get out after eight years and harboring some cynicism of his own about the system.\u00a0 This man Stone\u2019s confronting has Stone\u2019s fate in his hands.<\/p>\n

But, seasoned as Mabry is at \u201creading\u201d the inmates, it\u2019s quickly apparent that Stone has got Mabry\u2019s number: this man cannot throw the first stone (\u201clet he who is without sin cast the first stone\u201d).\u00a0 In the opening scenes of the movie, we\u2019re introduced to the miserable marriage of Mabry and his wife Madylyn (Frances Conroy).\u00a0 We\u2019re not sure why there\u2019s such a gulf between them, why he reinforces his rejection of her in countless ways that you can see are killing her soul with their thousand cuts.<\/p>\n

During the course of Stone\u2019s numerous parole hearing interviews, he begins to realize that what had been a stock observation on his part to goad Mabry was actually true: Jack Mabry is \u201cas clean\u201d as Stone.<\/p>\n

Mabry may not have committed arson and been accessory to murder, like Stone; but he hasn\u2019t \u201clived right.\u201d\u00a0 And, he\u2019s vulnerable\u2026to Stone\u2019s gorgeous wife, Lucetta (Milla Jovovich), who wants her husband\u2019s parole hearing to go his way.\u00a0 At first, it seems to be a plot by the Stones; but as time goes by and Stone seems to be as interested in seeking a spiritual rebirth as he is interested in his freedom, it appears that Lucetta is engineering the irresistible pressure on Mabry to \u201chelp them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intimations of blackmail and the utter ruination of what Lucetta says is a \u201cgood man,\u201d preoccupies the viewer\u2019s concentration, until nearly the end of the movie,\u00a0 Then you realize there has been an about-face and Stone has turned out to be \u201cthe door\u201d through which Mabry will step into a new, hopefully more truthful life.<\/p>\n

While silence and sound are used to fascinating effect throughout the story, essentially it\u2019s the underlying buzz generated by Norton and De Niro\u2019s chemistry that you will not just hear, but feel, long after you\u2019ve left the theatre.\u00a0 Rated R for language, nudity, sexual content and violence.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert De Niro and\u00a0Ed Norton reunite in the prison drama\u00a0Stone. By Maggie Scott Robert De Niro is unquestionably one of America\u2019s finest actors; and we\u2019ve been privileged to see him on occasion in combination with two other great actors: Al Pacino and Sean Penn. Now, with their sophomore effort, we can hail a new pairing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMovie review: Stone - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=4234\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie review: Stone - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert De Niro and\u00a0Ed Norton reunite in the prison drama\u00a0Stone. 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