MOVIE: Oldboy

OLDBOY:  a Spike Lee remake of a Korean film based on a Japanese manga tale with the same name.  This is not a typical Spike Lee film.  This is a very violent film.  It is one of the more violent non-horror films I’ve ever seen.  I’m told the Korean version is even more violent.  People whose opinions I greatly respect have praised the Korean film, however, after viewing the Spike Lee version, I have no intention of seeing the original.   Although the violence flows from the storyline and is not gratuitous, it is a bit too much.  The film’s opening gives no indication as to the road it will travel.   Josh Brolin plays the lead character, Joe Doucett.  Joe is an alcoholic.  He is also an advertising executive, a divorcee, the father of a 3- year old female child and views himself as a ladies’ man.  After he loses a potential big-time client due to his drinking and flirting with the client’s girlfriend, Joe meets a lady in Chinatown with a big umbrella.  The next scene shows Joe lying in bed alone.  What’s occurred up to this point is merely a preamble to the rest of the film.  The room is sealed.  There is a door slot.  Food (Chinese) is slid through the slot along with a pint of vodka.  Joe is locked in the room for 20 years.  For the first part of his stay, he remains an alcoholic.  The room has a TV, which allows you to mark the passing of time.  Joe learns his wife has been killed and that he is the suspect.  By way of periodic updates from a TV series about unsolved crimes, Joe receives information about his daughter.  He becomes inspired, stops drinking and writes his daughter letters that he hopes to send her.  He also figures out a way to escape.  At this point, Brolin has given another excellent performance and you are still clueless as to where the film is going.   Upon Joe’s escape from his 20-year lockup, which occurs approximately halfway through this 97 minute film, things turn violent.  Shortly after the escape, you learn who had locked Joe up.  You also meet the Samuel Jackson character, Chaney, a truly violent man.  Jackson’s on screen time is not long but it is powerful.  Only at the very end of the film do you learn why Joe was imprisoned; the reason was not one I had anticipated.  There are gaps in the storyline, for instance, how did Joe end up in a casket?  I understand the original film cut was 140 minutes long.  Presumably the longer version fills in the gaps and offers an explanation as to what attracted Lee to retell this particular story.  The violence notwithstanding, this is a very disturbing vengeance film with excellent acting performances.  Its Honolulu run is short and I suspect the majority of you will not be seeing this film.   As you know, I generally do not comment on a film’s ending, however, this review is an exception.  Therefore, if you think you might be seeing either version of this film, stop reading.

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Joe’s imprisonment is the result of things that occurred when he was in high school.  His capturer, referred to initially as The Stranger, is played by Sharlto Copley.  The Stranger and his sister were classmates of Joe.  One day, Joe sees the sister having sex with an older man, and through Joe, classmates learn the sister is sexually active.  Unbeknownst to Joe, the man with whom the sister was having sex was her father.  The Stranger and his sister leave school.  Subsequently the father kills the sister and the mother and wounds The Stranger.  We learn this information only at the very end of the story, after Joe and a character played by Elizabeth Olsen, who is presented as a nurse, have sex.  We then learn that the Olsen character is Joe’s daughter.  The lock up occurred because the Stranger specifically wanted Joe to experience what his family had experienced before it was terminated.   Joe does not terminate his daughter.  Rather, he engages Chaney to again lock him up.    As stated above, this is a disturbing and bizarre movie.