Tom Stall is a peaceful diner owner living in a small town with his wife and children until one day a group of dangerous men show up, unwinding a mystery.Based on a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vincent Locke, Josh Olson’s subtle screenplay is taut, raw and engrossing. Because the subject matter is so dark and without a hint of the supernatural, it would be hard to tell it came from a comic book. But all in all, it is one of the best adaptations from the medium to hit the big screen so far.
David Cronenberg, mainly known for making surreal work like Dead Ringers and Naked Lunch, delivers one of the best and most original crime tales of this decade. He directs the film with such creepiness and dread that it will stick with you long after it’s over. Cronenberg captures perfectly both ideal Americana and its underbelly with equal truth and originality. Since it pertains to the film’s themes, it should be mentioned how brutally raw and unflinchingly honest the violence is.
David Mamet’s pitch dark morality play about capitalism as a nihilistic force for poisoning the human spirit was turned into a film in 1992 with an all star cast featuring Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, and Alan Arkin. All of them play miserable salesmen both complicit and bitterly at odds with having their sense of identity wrapped up in their weekly sales figures. The actors work the odd time signatures of Mamet’s trademark dialogue and the lines are delivered with a seething intensity that leaves you a little shaken.
