Fierce People

Fierce People **

Directed by Griffin Dunne
Written by Dirk Wittenborn, based on his novel

Starring:
Diane Lane as Liz Earl
Anton Yelchin as Finn Earl
Donald Sutherland as Ogden C. Osborne
Chris Evans as Bryce
Kristen Stewart as Maya
Paz de la Huerta as Jilly
Blu Mankuma as Gates
Elizabeth Perkins as Mrs. Langley

107 Minutes(Rated R for language, drug use, sexuality/nudity and some violence. )
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What saves "Fierce People" in the end is how well acted it ends up being, even though the screenplay-which shifts in tone so much-especially in the third act-that at times you'll be wondering if you're watching the same movie. But with saving graces like Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland, Kristen Stewart, and Anton Yelchin, it's a film worth seeing-at some point. There are too many good movies out there at the moment to waste your buck on this one, however, and after being shelved for two years since it's 2005 premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, it's a wonder this came out two weeks ago.

'Fierce People" is a social satire, and this is made evident from the first few minutes, where people are compared to a tribe in South America. A similar sequence occurred during the opening credits of "The Nanny Diaries," and that was much more clever and well done. Anton Yelchin plays Finn Earl, a teen with a mother Liz who gets high and has sex with many men after giving them massages. When Finn is getting ready to spending the summer with his documentary film maker father that he never met who lives in South America, Liz runs out of cocaine, and to help his mother get her fix, Finn tries to buy her some. And gets caught by the cops. Luckily Liz's friend Ogden Osbourne gives them a house for the summer, and helps get Finn out of court, and of course Finn believes that he is having sex with him mom. But Osbourne doesn't have the right equipment for such an event, and Finn now gets settled into the chaos of the rich amongst the poor.

The first hour of the movie ends up going along these rich people-their lifestyles, their affairs, their snide comments. Finn ends up getting a love interest in the form of Maya, and her brother is a cooky rich guy named Bryce-played by the awful Chris Evans. And the social satire is extremely evident. The screenplay, by Dirk Wittenborn who also wrote a novel of this, makes it clear that the rich and upper class are being compared to a South American tribe. They do things for themselves, and seem to be quite unaware of forms of being civil. The problem is while there are some jokes and satire there, the movie isn't really about anything, and it becomes characters gallivanting around the screen. And then when plot is introduced it ends up being in the form of something so grim and creepy that it more carefree feeling that the film had amongst the dark comedy seems to vanish. I'm not so sure how I felt about the third act, but it left a rather sour feeling in my mouth.

The acting is very good here, and Diane Lane is a vision. It's odd seeing her as a less glamorous character than she normally is. She goes from being the cute romantic lead like "Must Love Dogs" to being somewhat of a mess. Well, a total mess is more like it. Donald Sutherland has his moments even though his characters-the old wise man-is a bit of a contrivance, but he does well in everything even though his material isn't often very good. And the two young leads-Kristen Stewart who was the only good thing about Tribeca 2007's "The Cake Eaters", and Anton Yelchin who was the only good thing about the David Duchovny mess "House of D"-both shine in their respected roles. I did like the minor irony on how Mr. Osborne-played well by Donald Sutherland-may have been the only decent man in the film-aside from the young character Finn-and he was the one that didn't have any sex organs. I don't know if that was intended, but I caught a little humor in that. Griffin Dunne's direction is alright-he's a much better acting than he is behind the camera, but he has some cool shots-especially towards the end when the camera seems to be on a constant minor title. The main problem ends up being that this is a satire that covers no new ground. And the ending-which basically states that civilized people cannot act like people of a tribe-they can't always get what they want and do what they want-just doesn't say anything new that we didn't know. It just felt like it was rather a waste of time. It wasn't like "The Nanny Diaries" which took specific things at this point in our history and poked fun at them. "Fierce People" is a decent watch, but could be a wait for video, or television.