>I thought that it was very interesting visually, and I liked
>it very much.
>
>***SPOILER ALERT***
>
>My only caveat is that, honestly, most of the violence was
>at something of an emotional distance, which is appropriate,
>but I couldn't even mourn Benny's death properly.
>
>The only time this film had me by the heart was in the
>moments in which L'il Ze was teaching the Runts a lesson.
>Those little kids really got me. And if I had seen more
>emotions all the way through, I would have been much more
>satisfied. Not that I had to see everyone as naked and raw
>as that child, but I would have liked to believe in the love
>stories. Or I would have liked to have *felt* the slights
>that turned L'il Dice into L'il Ze, rather than just having
>to take Rocket's word for it.
>
>And the thing is, this is a fairly minor criticism, and I
>might not even have thought of it had it not been for the
>one truly brilliant scene. The rest of the violence I left
>inside the theatre when the movie was over. That little kid
>I took home with me and can't quite shake even now.


This film has been, and undoubtedly will continue to be compared to Amores Perros. Where this film improves on AP is that it's substance is not given the backseat to style. In reading interviews with the film's director, I was surprised to discover he's 47 years-old. The film was bursting with so much energy that it felt like the work of a younger talent. But I think it was the director's age that helped temper the visual stylings and disjointed storytelling so as to not lose sight of the story whereas Amores Perros (which i still love) put too many eggs in the style basket.

A lot of comparisons have been made to Scarface and I think that is one of the obvious surface comparisons but Lil Dice aka Lil Ze is more like "Sexy Beast's" Don Logan (or even Biehn's Ringo from Tombstone) than "Scarface's" Tony Montana. As Ben Kingsley characterised Don Logan as the unhappiest man in the world who seeks to push misery into the lives of others. The resemblance to Lil' Ze hit me like a ton of bricks during the club scene when he gets turned down by the young woman. It was in that moment where we first gain any real insight into Lil' Ze's motivations and the scene is so powerful and the actor's performance so honest that that's all you really need. He's not crazy or power mad, he's a broken child so full of hatred for a world that has shunned him his only recourse is to strike out with all that he has. Despite his inhuman actions, he was the most complex and human charactr in the piece. Thus I actually identified the most with his character.

All that being said, the violence didn't have the emotional weight necessary for such a tale. And therein lies the film's biggest weakeness. It's shocking at the time, but after a good five to ten minutes upon exiting the theater the emotions are gone. You remember seeing an excellent film. But the weight is no longer present. There is just so much violence that the images just blend together, save the scene with the Runts. Like Janey said, you don't have time to mourn or even catch your breath.

Nevertheless, this is, from the seemingly few films I saw from 2002, number 2 on my list after "25th Hour," that despite its flaws, is still very much with me.