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 Director
: Bryan Singer
Starring
: Ian Mckellen, Brad Renfro, Bruce Davidson, Elias Koteas
& David Schwimmer
Picture 2.35:1 & 4:3 Fullscreen,
DD 5.1, Dual-Sided, Dual Layer, Keep Case
Running
Time : 112 mins
The
story:
If you don't believe in the existence of evil you've
got a lot to learn.
Neighborhood
boy Todd Bowden (Renfro) discovers that an old man living
on his block named Arthur Denker (Mackellan) is a nazi war
criminal. Bowden confronts Denker and offers him a deal:
Bowden will not go to the authorities if Denker tells him
stories of the concentration camps in WWII. Denker agrees
and Bowden starts visiting him regularly. The more stories
Bowden hears, the more it affects his personality and his
relationship with his parents and those around him.
The
summary:
Adapted from a novella by Stephen King, Apt Pupil takes
a dark journey into the hearts of men that propagate Evil.
We meet schoolboy Todd Bowden (Renfro) who is studying the
atrocities of the holocaust and the nazi's. He is an average
student with more than a passing interest in the evil that
men do. Little by little he realizes that one of his neighbours
is a wanted Nazi war criminal called Kurt Dussander (McKellan)
and he blackmails him to tell him the gruesome details of
the killings in exchange for his silence. Dussander is reluctant
at first but for a man that spent so much of his life performing
genocide he slowly begins to enjoy his retelling of the
War and it begins to spark feelings long since buried deep
inside him.
Ian
McKellen is a revelation as Dussander. The darkness he breathes
into the character is amazing and at times, despite his
frailty he does seem genuinely scary. I would liken the
part (although to a lesser extent) to that of Hannibal Lecter,
also portrayed by another of Britain's finest actors. The
film is really a moral piece about the Evil that some people
have inside and how given the right circumstances it can
be a guiding influence and infiltrate their way of thinking.
Bowden learns a lot from Dussander and slowly sinks into
his own depravity, although heavily desensitized from the
King Novella. Renfro plays this a lot louder than McKellen
who is more scheming and masterful. Ultimately Renfro is
acted off the screen and in some scenes is actually made
to look too contrived. Also watch out for the incredibly
campy and pretty dire performance of David Schwimmer, who
looks majorly out of his depth. Overall this is a chilling
thriller along the lines of Misery and will keep you entertained
with its psychological twists and turns.
The
DVD release is a sturdy package with good all round sound
and picture. It is only let down heavily by the extra's
which are almost non existent and do not compliment the
film at all.
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