Themes: Out For Revenge, Assumed Identities, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Jason Flemyng, Peter Stormare, Leslie Hope, Nina Garbiras
Release Year: 2000
Country: FR/US
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
Horror-meister George Romero directs this thriller about a 99-pound weakling who strikes back at everyone who has wronged him in the past. Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) works at a fashion mag called Bruiser for the short-fused, dictatorial Miles Styles (Peter Stormare). Henry spends much of his day fantasizing about killing himself and killing others, particularly his nagging wife Janine (Nina Garbiras). After learning that Miles is shagging his wife and that his stockbroker best friend swindled him out of a stack of money, Henry wakes up the following day to learn that his face has mysteriously been rendered white and featureless. Soon, like a mime with bloodlust, Henry violently dispatches with everyone in his life, save Miles' wife, whose paintings may be responsible for his sudden transformation. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
George A. Romero has always been noted for peppering his sometimes-gruesome horror yarns with a dash of social commentary, though with his latest effort the weight seems shifted, feeling more like social commentary with elements of minimal horror folded into the mix. Fans hearing the name Romero and expecting a horrific gore-fest will no doubt be disappointed in Bruiser's lack of graphic violence, though in considering such efforts as Season of the Witch (1973) and Knightriders (1981) the apparent departure from style might not be quite the shock it initially appears to be. Jason Flyming is well-suited to the role of the faceless, spineless everyman who savors the opportunity to avenge his identity in the face of those who callously took advantage of him in the past. His relationship with a co-worker (who also happens to be the boss' wife) gives the audience a chance to understand and sympathize with his plight, and his reactions to the trials life hands him offer viewers a chance to identify with the universal frustrations of the Dilbert set who unknowingly resign themselves to being lost in the mix. Playing out as a more subtle hybrid of American Psycho and Falling Down, Romero keeps Flyming's well-to-do peon sympathetic until the film's overblown and unconvincing climax. Only in its final moments does Brusier stumble into convention as the avenging antihero plots to give his boss the ultimate payback, with the implausible "master plan" seeming desperate compared to the rest of the film's more realist approach. Slow moving but satisfyingly involving throughout the majority of its running time, Romero weaves a thoughtful yarn of lost identity and everyday frustrations with Bruiser, one only wishes that he might have more carefully considered where his story was heading. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Tom Atkins - Detective McCleary; Jeff Monahan - Tom Burtran
Credit
Martin Walters - Co-producer, Alina Panova - Costume Designer, George A. Romero - Director, Miume Jan Eramo - Editor, Donald A. Rubinstein - Composer (Music Score), Adam Swica - Cinematographer, Ben Barenholtz - Producer, George A. Romero - Screenwriter
