There are a few instances when I cursed myself for not having watched a movie a long time ago. Today, the list gets one more addition. Normally when you watch a comedy, you usually come out laughing. You watch a tragedy and you come out with a heavy heart. You watch an action/adventure movie and you are high in your spirits. And you have the feel good movies or movies that leave you with nothing or adds more to your boredom. You discuss with your friends or think to yourself, no this is not right, the movie shouldn't have gone this way or shouldn't have ended this way. Or you say this movie is cinematic and has no credible fiction in it. However, there are few movies which leave you stunned, just stunned. After finishing this movie, I couldn't think of any of these things. I did not/could not feel whether the justice was served or not in this movie. I could not think of any else on the events took place in this movie or how everyone acted in this movie. My mind was calm as a bomb but was on the verge of exploding and this blog is the evidence of the explosion.
I was becoming the fan of Sean Penn after watching "I am Sam" but now it is acknowledged. The cold face he shows when Brendan Harris walks in his store, the burst of tears when he comes to know his daughter has been murdered, the emotions he hides behind his coolers while preparing for his daughter's funeral, the grieving father mourning the fact that he misses his daughter, the brotherly face he shows to his sister-in-law when she confesses about her husband's actions, the steel face when he avenges for his daughter's murder and the last not the least is the classic when he comes to know he had killed an innocent man with forgetting not to mention the carefree yet remorseful face at the end of the movie. No wonder he bagged so many accolades for his acting and exceptionally apt that he received an Oscar for the Best Actor of the year 2003.
Tim Robbins would be loved by all movie freaks for his performance in "The Shawshank Redemption" and he does not fail in this endeavor too. Though he looks calm, he has so much secrets soaked within himself and carries the face so lost by himself. Sometimes looking nervous, sometimes looking pitiful but I wonder how he manages to be terrorized and terroristic at the same time. An acting that makes you forget that he's acting fetches him the Oscar for the Best Supporting of the same year. Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne does justice to their roles. And what graceful acting by Marcia Gay Harden. All do their jobs so perfectly and flawlessly.
The movie has got a soothing hue or color throughout its lifetime that has a calming effecting on the viewers' mind. The music is intertwined with the story and the closing music does not give a feel whether truth has triumphed or evil has been rewarded with defeat. It is neutral and so I felt after the movie.
All my astonishment and acclamation was floating in the mid-air until the closing credits came up. I was made to shut up my mind and its astonishment and say 'No wonder, he was the director'. And the realization dawned that only he could have directed such a movie, a realization that happened for the second time, the first time being after watching the movie Apocalypto. Already a fan of his works, my favorite list of his movies gets one more addition. Only this director knows how to shoot a drama with a script that has all the ingredients for a thriller. This genre of directors show why they are the best in the industry as they can emphasize that human emotions can give the same thrill as any other thriller/action movies.
