Savages

Oliver Stone's Savages is the kind of movie that deflates, when it should be building up tension. There are some good performances within it, and the movie has been shot well (as if we would expect anything less from Stone), but there's absolutely nothing to care about. This has nothing to do with the fact that there are technically no "decent" people in the movie, and that everybody (even the heroes) are drug dealers, crooks, and back-stabbers. This has to do with the fact that nobody in the script has been given a personality.

Things kick off with a narration from a woman named O (short for Ophelia). She's played by Blake Lively, and in her narration, she informs us that even though she's the one telling the story, that doesn't mean she's going to live to see the end of it. This sets up a sense that we're in for a twisting and deep story - a sense that does not hang around for long when we realize how little to this story there is. O is romantically involved with, and lives with, two men, who are best friends. They are war veteran Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and the calm and reserved Ben (Aaron Johnson). I would say that for the first 15 minutes or so of the movie, we listen to O describe her life with these guys. This wouldn't be so bad if the screenplay didn't provide her with such a laughably bad narration. When she describes having sex with Chon, she says that it feels like Chon is trying to "f*** the war out of himself", and describes it as "wargasms".

The three live together in a beautiful home on the shores of Laguna Beach. Both Chon and Ben have made a fortune in growing pot that's been smuggled into the US from overseas. Eventually their business grows so successful, it grabs the attention of a Mexican cartel, led by the vicious Elena (Salma Hayek, wearing a wig that makes her look like Cleopatra, just a little). She insists on merging their drug operations, and Chon and Ben refuse. Elena gets so mad, she sends her right-hand man, Lado (Benicio Del Toro), to kidnap O, and force the boys into cooperating. What follows is a simple revenge plot that never grabs our attention, laced with over the top graphic violence that almost seems to have been thrown in as an attempt to wake up the audience. John Travolta also shows up in a supporting role, as a slimy DEA agent, playing both sides.

I admit that this could be compelling material for a movie, but Savages takes the entirely wrong approach. It's leisurely and dull, when it should be frantic and tense. It seems to think that throwing in some random scenes of gruesome bloodshed is enough, completely ignoring the characters who should have been the focus. Speaking of focus, that's one thing the screenplay by Stone, Shane Salerno, and Don Winslow (who wrote the novel that inspired this film) never agrees on. It jumps around from one idea to the next, without really spending enough time on any one character or premise. A lot of this may have to do with the fact that the movie endured heavy cuts on its way to the screen. (A subplot featuring Uma Thurman as O's mother was removed.) But, this ultimately is an aimless screenplay that doesn't know how to make us get involved with these characters.

And yet, everything outside of the script has been done with some skill. The performances are fine, the movie looks great, and it never really offends, at least until the final moments. That's when we get an ending so confused and wrong-headed, it pretty much kills what little good will may have been created. This is the kind of ending that had the audience at my screening laughing and groaning as it started to unravel. How did anyone involved with this movie think that this was the proper way to end the story? I've seen plenty of movies that have shot themselves in the foot with their ending. Savages takes things a step further, by shooting itself in both feet, then stabbing a knife in its kneecaps with its ending.

The more I think back on this movie, the more I realize how little it really is about. Stone and his team are not really trying to make any point on the drug trade, and it lacks the dark satire of Natural Born Killers (the closest Stone movie that this one resembles). It's just a grisly, moody, and uninteresting story told by people we care nothing about. And really, who needs that? Toss in the howler of an ending the movie gives us, and that question becomes even more valid.

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