Straw Dogs (2011) Review

In the wake of her father's death, Amy (Kate Bosworth) returns to her rural Southern hometown with her screenwriter husband, David (James Marsden). Her goal is to put her childhood home on the market while David works on his latest screenplay. Meanwhile, David hires Amy's high school boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård) and his crew to rebuild the roof on the secluded country home. But the more time Charlie's work crew spends working on the roof, the greater tensions begin to grow between Amy and David. Every time Amy walks outside, the work stops and the ogling begins. When David attempts to avert confrontation by firing the crew before the job is finished, former high school football star Charlie snaps, deciding that if he can't have Amy on his own terms, he'll take her by force. Later, when a mentally disabled presumed rapist or child murderer kills a high school student her father, only called Coach (James Woods) swears revenge and Charlie and his crew decide to help. Amy and David take in the murderer to protect his life from the angry mob and all hell breaks loose as Charlie and company break into their house.

One of the many things I could say about this film is that it is a tense, well-structured thriller that doesn't need to rely on exorbitant amounts of constant violence to be effective. Don't get me wrong. The film is very violent but much of that is in the last fifteen minutes and if you look closely a large portion happens off-screen and in shadow rather than harsh fluorescent light. What you do see is so quick that, if you blink you might miss it. One of the more disturbing scenes is a scene in which Amy is raped by Charlie and his "second-in-command" Norm. It is disturbing in the sense that it is rape but there are the same types of scenes in other films I could name that are more uncomfortable to watch. I was more moved by the intimidating performance by Skarsgård and the frightening work done by Woods than any other roles in the film. When Charlie chastises David for leaving a church sermon early I nearly said, "Yes sir". Woods has portrayed some fairly evil characters in the past but this is by far the scariest one.

On a completely separate note when I saw the film the reels were mixed up which led to me being removed from the feelings I was having during the intense moments in the house and put into events several hours earlier. If they had been in the proper order I would have enjoyed the film more. Sure it's not as good as the 1971 original but I prefer to look at this as its own film unlike some critics.

★★★