'RULE' KEEPS PILING ON POINTS WITH GREAT PERFORMANCES.Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer THE IMPORTANT grudge match we've come to expect from athletic-themed films never arrives in ``The Slaughter Rule,'' a keen and compassionate drama by the writing/directing twins Alex and Andrew Smith Andrew Smith or Andy Smith may refer to:
n. A pungent relish made of fruits, spices, and herbs. [Hindi ca  n , the film's angry high-school football playing hero, figures out that important gestures can come from highly imperfect people. Roy isn't the only one due for a wake-up call. Nor is ``The Slaughter Rule,'' a Sundance Film Festival entry last year opening in limited release today, particularly concerned with football. It's a film about a young man's uneasy path to maturity. Roy (played by ``The Believer's'' Ryan Gosling Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12 1980) is an Academy Award-nominated Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in The Notebook, Half Nelson and Fracture. ) is stuck in a dead-end Montana town. His estranged es·trange tr.v. es·tranged, es·trang·ing, es·trang·es 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate. 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations. father has died, possibly a suicide. And Roy, who apparently has some talent on the gridiron, has just been cut from his varsity football team. Enter Gideon ``Gid'' Ferguson (David Morse David Morse is a name that can refer to:
Six-man football was developed in 1934 by Chester (Nebraska) High School coach Stephen Epler as an alternative means for small high schools to team that he wants Roy to quarterback. The interplay between Roy and Gideon, and later between Roy and his bartender girlfriend Skyla (Clea Duvall) are so exquisitely realized that their scenes are often painful to watch. Pretty much everyone in ``Slaughter Rule'' - the title refers to a regulation that forfeits a match once a team is far enough ahead - faces some form of loneliness or isolation. Skyla will open up to Roy, but only so far, and only if Roy is man enough to respond in kind. And Gid's machismo-laden efforts to establish trust with his team's golden boy backfire. In the hands of Morse, one of the screen's most unappreciated actors, Gid's struggle for a kind of validation is heartbreaking. Husky-voiced but with his eyes still full of fire, the actor gives Gid a kind of disreputable dis·rep·u·ta·ble adj. Lacking respectability, as in character, behavior, or appearance. dis·rep nobility. Gosling partners him expertly, infusing Roy with both toughness and vulnerability. No young man facing this kind of isolation should be subjected to the twin initiations that Gid and Skyla drop in Roy's lap, but Roy bears up well. Cinematographer Eric Edwards' camera work suggests a town dominated by bleak emptiness, the kind of place where people with even the slightest ambition are looking to jump on the first bus out of town. Roy may one day take that bus. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , he'd better work on his passes and soak up whatever wisdom the Gid Fergusons of the world are able to dispense. THE SLAUGHTER RULE - Three and one half stars (R: sex, language, violence) Starring: Ryan Gosling, David Morse, Clea Duvall, Kelly Lynch. Director: Alex Smith and Andrew Smith. Running time: 1 hr. 52 min. Playing: Arclight Theater, Hollywood. In a nutshell: Smart coming-of-age movie, not just for the sports minded. |
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