Movie Review - Stone

Stone (2010)

Starring Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, and Frances Conroy

Directed by John Curran

When I saw the trailer for Stone last year, I laughed at a corn-rowed Edward Norton as he spoke in some country-urban dialect.  Fortunately, the accent didn't seem nearly as ludicrous in the midst of the actual film itself.  Unfortunately, there's no reason for this film to exist.  It's often worse to watch a film that just meanders aimlessly and never gets anywhere than a film that gets somewhere but does it horribly.  At least in the latter film, you can find reasons to actively despise it.  In a film like Stone, the story just sits there onscreen never eliciting any type of positive or negative emotion and that's a disappointment.

Part of the problem is that Robert DeNiro doesn't even seem like he's trying here.  As parole officer Jack Mabry, he's just coasting along, showing no emotion.  The storyline asks him to question his faith when convicted arsonist Gerald "Stone" Creeson (Norton) suddenly appears to find God via some unusual religion while in jail.  Not only is Jack contemplating his religious faith, but his faithfulness to his wife (Frances Conroy) also comes into play when Stone's wife, the alluring Lucetta (Milla Jovovich), attempts to do whatever necessary in order to get her husband out of jail.

Despite decent performances from Norton and Jovovich, the religious aspects of the tale bog down the whole film.  I'm guessing that there was an attempt made at offering some deep philosophical notions about the emptiness that faith can bring about in times of struggle and need, but the film just fails on that front.  For a film that appears to be denouncing the preachiness of organized religion, it ends up feeling like a Sunday sermon.

The RyMickey Rating:  D