Aussie Noir Crackles

Filmmaking Duo Prove Deserving Heirs to the Coen Brothers

The Square (Five Stars) (630 words)

By Cole Smithey

Kicking off with a wicked little short film called "Spider," sibling filmmakers Nash and Joel Edgerton announce their ability to shock you in a way you've not quite been surprised before. The Australian brothers set the main event story around Ray and Carla, an adulterous couple (well played by David Roberts and Claire Van Der Boom). Between Christmas and New Years, Carla arranges for Ray to steal the cash from her criminal husband's latest heist so she and Ray can abandon their middle class suburban existence forever. With this little pot-of-gold MacGuffin, the Edgerton Brothers take the audience on a perverse path of moral corruption that takes a heavy toll on all concerned, and even some on the plot's periphery. The "square" of the film's title refers to a concrete building foundation that contains its own nasty secret. "The Square" is a masterfully conceived and executed neo-noir from a couple of promising newcomers possessing keen ideas about weaving suspense with thematic momentum. This is one very satisfying genre piece to share with your suspense-loving friends.

It's refreshing to see the often hackneyed neo-noir genre--witness the recent "Don McKay"--done with such precision and emotional involvement. Adultery is a common staple of the genre, and it's a tricky sin with which to gain audience empathy. David Roberts has an everyman appeal as the story's volatile lynch-pin that makes him infinitely intriguing to watch. He's the kind of character actor that you feel like you've seen before even if you never have. When David's character Ray pays a local arsonist (played by co-writer Joel Edgerton) to execute his dubious plan, you can't help but hope that somehow things might at least land a little in his favor. The other side of the marital equation features Anthony Hayes as Greg "Smithy" Smith, the mullet-wearing husband to the woman that Ray desperately wants to spend his life with. There's a sardonic comedy to Greg's being that makes his possession of a large amount of cash an especially ridiculous prize for exploitation.

The story profits from the filmmakers' meticulous use of proximity in its locations that figure explicitly into the drum-tight narrative. Ray's house is across a lake from Carla's home, and his boy dog can't help but swim across to visit Carla's bitch; the canine romantic symmetry is one of those light subplot touches that exemplifies the film's involuntary fascination with detail. Although it might not contain the heavy shadows of the long-passed film noir era, the influence of mother nature is an ever-present threat that sweeps you up in its unpredictability. Heavy rain plays an important role in forcing Ray to expose the fraying edges of his loosening personality at his construction job. Like William H. Macy's character in the Coen Brothers' "Fargo," he puts himself in a jam where every decision is ten times worse than the one before.

Neo-noir is all about watching people expose their Achilles heel to actively pick and poke at it as if it were their only hope for salvation. Their imagined sense of emotional loyalty takes a backseat to greed. An anonymous blackmail demand presents an especially juicy twist to a story with almost as many reversals as the Dahl Brothers "Red Rock West," and a gut-wrenching climax that's just as surprising as the Coen Brothers' "Blood Simple." In cinema, there's nothing new under the sun, but you'll recognize the artistic creativity and expert filmic craftsmanship the Edgerton Brothers apply in twisting the suspense tighter and tighter toward an inevitable ending where all debts are paid. Unlike "Avatar," "The Square" is the kind of movie you could see twice, and not feel the least bit of guilt.

Not Rated. 105 mins. (A) (Five Stars - out of five/no halves)