By MEGHAN O’CONNOR
Contributing Writer
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
Straw Dogs, starring James Marsden and Kate Bosworth as David and Amy Sumner, catches your attention right away. David and Amy move from L.A back to Amy’s hometown Blackwater, Mississippi. When David meets Amy’s ex boyfriend Charlie, played by new comer to movies and co-star on True Blood, Alexander Skarsgard, things get tense but calm down once Charlie agrees to be a friendly neighbor and help the Sumner’s fix the roof of their new home. Throughout, little things continue to happen over the course of the movie– tension, anger, and frustration– start to boil under the surface. When a character in the movie, Jeremy Niles, is targeted for a crime, David and Amy come to his rescue and bring him into their home. When this incident in the town occurs, it’s just enough ammunition that both parties need to express their anger and resentment towards each other.
I was very impressed with the acting in this movie. Marsden, as David, played a down-to-earth L.A. and an all-around good guy. However, when this incident occurs with the character Jeremy, he becomes a monster, whose main goal is to protect his wife and his house. Going from one extreme to the next always impresses me, and seeing that this was an extremely different role for Marsden, whose passed credits include 27 Dresses and Enchanted.
Another excellent actor to watch out for is Alexander Skarsgard. Playing Amy’s ex-boyfriend, Charlie from high school, he is very charming. However, everyone in this movie is two-faced, and when you see his other side, it is absolutely terrifying. Playing both parts extremely well, he keeps you guessing throughout the whole film. Is he the good guy just trying to help out his ex-girlfriend with her roof? Or, is he the bad guy who would love nothing more then to rip apart her marriage so he could once again be with her
Another great aspect of this movie was the scenery. Taking place in a little quiet country town helped to show you that this town protects it’s own people. The clothing and mentality of the town were dead-on. Having the countrymen wearing plaid shirts and jeans, and David wearing more of a nerdy look with glasses and button down shirts makes you realize how different he is from everyone in this town. The film displayed southern stereotypes in a realistic and accurate way, almost making it seem like it was not even a stereotype, but a way of life. I thought it made the events that take place seem more real. Everything, down to their hobbies of drinking beer and hunting was authentic and Southern. I also appreciated Alexander Skarsgard giving his character Charlie a southern drawl; at some points in the movie it made him all the more terrifying.
This movie at times was a bit gruesome and hard to sit through, if you have a weak stomach I do not suggest going to see it. This movie earned its R rating, with sexual violence, graphic images, and bloody death scenes. However, the authentic and realistic ideas that the movie portrays makes it down right creepy. If you’re looking for a movie to make you shutter and get up twice in the middle of the night to make sure you locked your doors, then this is the movie for you. After all, this movie has a great lesson: you might not really know the people in your town as well as you think you do.
