★★★★ - THE POST
- Pitt and best friend elevate this NZ-made survival thriller -
I know there's a particularly warm and pointy bit of hell reserved for film reviewers who give away too many of the twists and turns of the film they are scribbling about. But, I've also become aware in the last few days that I know people are interested in seeing Heart of the Beast, but only if "the dog doesn't die".
So, out of respect for those people, and because Heart of the Beast is a pretty bloody good film which I reckon people will enjoy, I'm going to let you know that no, the dog doesn't die.
In fact, director David Ayer even chooses to open Heart of the Beast with a brief scene of Odin - that's the dog - standing next to a rural road, bloodied and bedraggled, but still very much alive, before we plunge into the events of the previous couple of days that have led Odin to be there.
Heart of the Beast stars Brad Pitt as a retired US Special Forces soldier and New Zealand's own South Island as a spectacular series of Alaskan lakes, mountains and river valleys.
Pitt's James Belmont and his trusty best friend have flown Belmont's ageing Cessna into this peopleless wilderness for a few days of fishing and hunting. Neither Belmont nor Odin have got much use for human society any more. Both have been wounded and battered by warfare, with Odin more outwardly expressing the nightmares and aggression that Belmont surely holds deeper within himself.
A storm rolls in, and Belmont ill-advisedly decides to try to outrun it. But that ends badly and now Belmont and Odin are stranded, maybe five days’ walk away from the nearest road. They have no radio, few provisions and the local wolves and bears have already noted their presence.
Walking out of Heart of the Beast, some wit in front of me said "God, I feel like I've just watched the trailer 50 times", and I get that. This is a simple film, and not much happens that the trailer - and the conventions of the genre - haven't already told you will occur. There will be an encounter with a bear, a bad fall into a raging river, and those wolves will have to attack at some point. All that matters is how credibly and inventively Ayer and his cast can get all this inevitable business up onto the screen.
Heart of the Beast is a solid, intelligent and likeable thrash at the material. Pitt is exactly right as Belmont, getting a lot of Belmont's character established in the silences between the dialogue, and managing to convey plenty in the way he says very little during a solitary, early, encounter with another human being. Next to Pitt, the four dogs credited as playing Odin are all clearly very good boys.
Te Waipounamu makes for a hell of a stunning backdrop to the action, and the mostly Kiwi crew have, again, knocked it out of the park. Cinematographer Mauro Fiore (Spider-Man: No Way Home) keeps his cameras busy when the action demands it, but also finds and respects the moments of peace and great beauty which book-end the film. J.K. Simmons and Canadian-Inuk actor Anna Lambe (The Grizzlies) are both fine in brief support roles.
Heart of the Beast is a thing well made. Pitt is growing into his early-60s with a gruff grace and an admirable lack of vanity. Maybe it helps to have started from base-line of superhuman handsomeness, but Pitt is wearing his burgeoning pouches and lines like a man who is at ease with himself, and ready to dig far below the surface for the substance of his characters. Likewise, Ayer and writer Cameron Alexander are thinking about more than just another survivalist thriller here. This is a film with something on its mind, and a deft and quietly effective way of expressing it. Bravo.
- Graeme Tuckett, THE POST
Heart of the Beast is now playing at Light House Cinema!