Movie Review - The Square

The Square (2010)

Starring David Roberts and Claire van der Boom

Directed by Nash Edgerton

A film noir in the best possible sense of the word, The Square is taut, suspenseful, and completely engaging -- a flick you should add to your rental list right away.

Raymond (David Roberts) and Carla (Claire van der Boom) are having an affair.  Both are married, but neither are happy.  In typical noir fashion, the dame convinces her honey to commit a nefarious deed.  In this case, Carla discovers that her husband is involved in some shady dealings and is hiding a large stash of money in their home.  She and Raymond concoct a plan to steal the money, hire an arsonist to set her house on fire to make it appear that the cash has gone up in smoke, and run away together.  As is the case in most movies like this, the best laid plans always tend to go a little (or a lot) awry.

As the events around him begin snowballing out of control at an increasingly rapid rate, Raymond soon begins to realize that he's gotten himself into something way over his head.  As played by the somber David Roberts, Raymond is a character who starts with perhaps a mild guilt for cheating on his wife.  This guilt then balloons into a fear of being caught for the crimes he's committed and a genuine shock at the levels to which he will stoop in order to keep things hidden.  Some may say that Roberts is playing Raymond as a one-note lummox or a push-over, but I see him as a man who is more frightened of himself than anything else -- a man angry that he could descend to the depths to which he has.

Director Nash Edgerton, working from a script co-written by his brother Joel Edgerton, keeps things moving at a great clip.  The brothers have a real sense of what makes classic noirs like Double Indemnity work.  While somewhat abandoning the dark shadows and witty and suggestive banter that are so characteristic of noirs of yore, the Edgartons focus on a man being pushed to do things outside of his moral code simply to earn the affections of a woman.  It's a simple idea, but one that works over and over again.

If you happen to rent the Blu-Ray, be sure to check out the short film Spider.  It'll only take up nine minutes of your time, but it, along with The Square, give us an idea of the kind of filmmakers the Edgarton brothers will be -- and I can't wait to see more from them. 

The RyMickey Rating:  A-