Review: Oldboy (2013)

Cast: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Spike Lee
Country: USA
Genre: Action | Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Official Website: Here

Editor’s Notes: Oldboy is now open in wide release. For an additional perspective, read Parker’s review (63/100).

Spike Lee’s Oldboy is based on the South Korean film of the same name directed by Park Chan-wook in 2003.  Given this fact, and that Chan-wook’s film is venerated as a modern classic, there will be endless comparisons of the two films.  Not being an acolyte of 2003 version and only seeing it once ten years ago, I will not be indulging in a comparison of the films.  I will say that watching Lee’s version did spur some memories of the original film, but I feel that it also stands on its own quite well.

The story is that of Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin), an advertising man in 1993, who is a divorced alcoholic and a terrible father.  He skips his daughter’s 3^rd birthday so he can woo a client so big that if (and when) he fails; it means the end of the ad agency he works for.  The night he almost lands the deal, he botches it by coming on to the client’s wife and thereby (obviously) ruins the deal, he gets absolutely plastered and shows up at his friend Chucky (Michael Imperioli)’s restaurant.  Before Chucky can let him in, Joe vanishes.

…watching Lee’s version did spur some memories of the original film, but I feel that it also stands on its own quite well.

He wakes up in what appears to be a motel room.  Food is slid into the room via a hatch at the bottom of the door.  Joe can’t get out because there is no window or doorknob.  After an angry outburst and the discovery that a fifth of vodka accompanies every meal, he kind of settles in.  He is then gassed and everything needed to frame him is taken from him, fingerprints and DNA samples and the like.  While watching TV, he discovers that his ex-wife has been raped and murdered and he is the prime suspect.

After a few months of being imprisoned, Joe decides to stop just getting fat on the dumplings he’s given for his meals and starts to work out and becomes determined to escape.  He starts writing letters to his daughter, even befriends a mouse.

After being captive for 20 years (and presumed dead by the outside world), Joe is released with as little warning and explanation as his capture.  He’s given an iPhone and a lot of money, a nice suit and no clues.  He befriends a healthcare volunteer named Marie (Elizabeth Olsen) and goes back to Chucky for help in tracking down who held him and why.

The rest of the story plays out in a detective/revenge story with twists and turns along the way that will excite some, repulse others and draw cheers and jeers from disciples of the original film.  Brolin (looking very Tom Waits-like) is really very good in the role.  He plays every aspect of Doucett to the fullest and best of his considerable ability.  He is a man fueled by anger, both before and after his abduction, and Brolin lets that anger smolder and changes it from a weakness to an asset.  The range of emotions he displays are difficult and yet Brolin manages to go from happy to sad to angry to pathetic in just about a minute.  Brolin is always good, but he’s not often called upon to do so much work in a picture.

Elizabeth Olsen is also proving herself as a top notch actress.  Though she doesn’t have much to do in Oldboy, she’s still very good while she’s onscreen.  She takes the kind of thankless role of doting sidekick and makes it into a more important part of the story just by playing it well.  She shows she isn’t afraid of much in terms of content and what she will do if the film demands it and I think she will be something special in the next few years.

It’s Lee’s direction more than anything in the plot that makes this film interesting and it’s Lee’s direction that makes up for anything the plot can’t do for the film.

Spike Lee’s direction is also on full tilt here.  When I first heard he’d be doing this film, I was skeptical given his propensity to do drama and the fact he’s never really done an action film before.  I’ve always regarded Lee as an occasional genius, with Do The Right Thing (1989), Malcom X (1992), 4 Little Girls (1997) and The 25^th Hour (2002) being his best works (though I did really like 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna and 2006’s Inside Man).  His other films are a mixture between very good and just plain terrible, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to play out.  When he’s good, he’s amazing and when he’s bad he is painful to watch.  With Oldboy, he surprised me with vivid and excited filmmaking that is a bit outside his normal oeuvre.  His direction is kinetic and vibrant, and the fight scenes are wonderfully staged (if a little too choppy in the editing).  His camera is fluid and keeps us up with Doucett as he rampages, but also slows down enough to give us a few quiet moments.  It’s Lee’s direction more than anything in the plot that makes this film interesting and it’s Lee’s direction that makes up for anything the plot can’t do for the film.

And now a discussion on the plot, though as free from spoilers as I can make it.  First of all, the plot is full of torture, violence and sexual abuse (the types of which I will not get into because they are a key point of the story), and that’s all well and good for some but that kind of depravity doesn’t excite me.  I don’t have a weak stomach and seeing that stuff doesn’t really bother me any more than it’s supposed to (and make no mistake, it is supposed to bother you), but seeing it does not hit me on a gut level and those factors do little to entice me into a film.  I think that’s why I didn’t fall head over heels for the original film, and why this one felt much the same.  The basic notion of the story is torture for revenge’s sake and the fact that people love the original for that purpose is disturbing.  I’m not knocking anyone who likes the original, of which there are scores of people, I liked it too.  The thing is, this film and those of its ilk just don’t hit me on a gut level.  I appreciate their style, but style does not a film make.

Ultimately, Oldboy is a good action film with lots of visual delights and good performances to carry it through some of its more repugnant plot points.  It won’t hold up as one of Lee’s best films, but at least it’s better than Summer of Sam (1999) and serves up a thrilling, winding story that will fleetingly make you feel sorry for Brolin’s character.  The ending is extremely flat, and that does take away from some of the power of the penultimate scene, but overall it’s a good picture.

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Doug Heller

Sr. Staff Film Critic

I believe film occupies a rare place as art, entertainment, historical records and pure joy. I love all films, good and bad, from every time period with an affinity to Classical Hollywood in general, but samurai, sci-fi and noir specifically. My BA is in Film Studies from Pitt and my MA is in Education. My goal is to be able to ignite a love of film in others that is similar to my own.

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