Understand the enemy and neutralize: a review of ”Absolute Power”
Even before graduating from Hogwarts, Daniel Radcliffe began to choose roles for himself in projects that can be mostly called non-cash or weird. Indeed, in front of the audience is no longer a boy with a scar on his forehead, but a promising actor who seeks to reveal his potential and is not afraid to try on risky images. In the indie drama "The Swiss Knife Man" and the TV series "A Young Doctor's Notebook" ( A Young Doctor's Notebook ), Daniel showed subtle, thoughtful acting and proved he was ready to go in versatile tapes. The outlined line in his career continues as an undercover agent in the crime thriller Absolute Power .The debutant in directing the full-length film Daniel Ragoussis took up a shaky ground, paying attention to such a burning problem of our time as neo-Nazism. Depicting such abscesses on the body of society, it is always dangerous not to keep the balance - to fall into clumsy rhetoric or excessive naturalism. The choice of such a topic requires inner sensitivity and at the same time courage. You need to be both politically correct and uncompromising in your assessments.  Absolute Power offers a fairly simple plot for its genre.Inexperienced newbie nerd from the FBI Nate Foster ( Radcliffe ) is suddenly sent on a difficult mission - the agent must infiltrate a group of neo-Nazis suspected of planning future terrorist actions in Washington . “You are an introvert, an outsider from childhood, raised by your mother and urged on by everyone at school. You will be able to understand them and, therefore, inspire confidence, "- encourages his charismatic boss Angela Zamparo (Toni Collette). This is where the performance of Radcliffe begins. Taking personal qualities, intelligence and modesty to work, he, in order to quickly get into trust, endows his character with new features. Sometimes there is even a feeling that the young agent is not playing at all - he tells the Nazis how he served in Iraq and how he worries about the white race, and so heartfelt that sometimes the viewer will be distorted by believability.  Actually, in films about undercover agents, several scenarios are usually possible: the operation is successful, and the sent cop, despite the obstacles, is doing well; the cop is wrong and nothing good comes out; for personal or selfish reasons, he no longer knows which side he is on. The character of Radcliffe , with his successful entry into the image of a young man who is not at all aggressive, but has supposedly justified reasons for believing in such an ideology, at first threatens to disappoint the viewer. But balancing on the brink is just a reflection of his amazing ability to empathize. Understand the motives of your enemy and you will defeat him. Despite the general psychologism, the picture, in general, implying a dynamic pace of the narrative, has a rather sluggish effect. This is understandable: Absolute Power is not a heroic action thriller. The only element of the genre in the film Ragussis is that a beginner, and not a fighter, but an intellectual comes out on a rather important task. The picture was filmed a little documentary - not the insane theories of racist fanatics about the creation of civilization by a white man are gradually coming to the fore, but the everyday life of an undercover FBI agent. They are not heroic, but they consist of small details, where every mistake, even a tiny one, can cause not only the failure of the operation, but also your own death.  Some slack in the narrative of the film is also due to the fact that the hero of Radcliffe moves towards the goal almost blindly: the FBI is not even sure that the Nazi group has the means for explosives, and their entire plan is based on guesswork. And the criminals are in no hurry to reveal their cards, but the characters of the characters are revealed who have chosen such a comfortable and at the same time stupid system of views. The images of Ragussis (intentionally or not) turned out to be mostly ridiculous and quite predictable. This is, for example, a theorist of Nazism, but in fact, just a typical revolutionary a la Verhovensky in the subtle performance of Tracy Letts, who is simply thirsting for fame and money, or an exemplary family man, in the spirit of Alex As in any criminal organization, there is a place for intellectuals, fighters, mental and physical work. True, the main and secondary Nazi characters are written by Ragussis rather schematically, with stereotyped strokes. But their images suggest quite a clear idea that Nazism is a sign of a sick society, and not some kind of infernal evil generated by one madman. And the ideology of hatred has much deeper roots than the notorious idea of racial superiority. Dissatisfaction with one's own life and the surrounding world gives rise to an understandable desire to find the culprit and, if possible, punish them.  This approach to depicting clearly negative characters has a very important effect - they are shown by ordinary real people. Racists in Ragussis are not the embodiment of extreme hatred, as in the undoubtedly brilliant performance of Edward Norton in American History X. But their example is a demonstration of how destructive ideas easily take root in a flexible human mind, becoming a part of life. Already, the children of one of the ideologists are building a house on a tree to hide from the "mudbloods" during the war, and the wife is preparing cupcakes decorated with a swastika. The effect of realism in the film is also achieved by taking as a basis real events, namely the stories associated with the infamous "Aryan Brotherhood" - one of the most powerful prison racist groups in the United States, formed back in the 1960s and declaring war on blacks and Hispanics. True, a rather significant discrepancy between the formidable and subsequently corrupt gang Brotherhood and the almost childish helplessness of the Nazis portrayed by the debutant director is noticeable even with the naked eye. It is quite possible that the director expressed only his attitude to the real state of affairs and the distribution of forces today: Absolute Power certainly resonates with reality, especially American.  What "Power" obviously lacked was a nerve, a sense of danger. Despite the fascisoid consciousness of the skinheads represented here, their general inadequacy in the desire to besiege and bomb Washington, all threats very soon turn out to be only words and terrible promises."In the beginning was the Word,"- says the hero of Tracy Letts and is not at all going to be responsible for the racist speeches he makes.“It all starts with a word”,- echoes him, influenced, but sensed. Perhaps it is his final monologue-address that is the key idea of the film Ragussis and certainly one of the main goals of the modest agent Nate Foster . First of all, you need to protect children's fragile minds, and national hostility is the area The Topic of Article: Understand the enemy and neutralize: a review of ”Absolute Power”. |
