Frailty (2002)
Directed by Bill Paxton
Written by Brent Hanley
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Levi Kreis, Bill Paxton
Release Date April 12th, 2002
Published April 12th, 2002
I have never liked Bill Paxton in a movie. In fact, after watching him destroy any chance I had to enjoy Titanic, I outright loathed him. I've gotten over the Titanic thing but my opinion of Paxton hasn't improved much. Paxton's resume boasts a number of titles that I have panned over the years including Vertical Limit, Mighty Joe Young and Trespass. Some have told me he's very good in A Simple Plan, I haven't seen it because he's in it.
The image of Paxton that I can't seem to shake though is his turn as Chet in Weird Science. For as long as I see Bill Paxton I will see that brutish pig, farting and saying intensely stupid things. It's actually his best performance. This is the bias I brought to my viewing of Paxton's directorial debut Frailty.
On a rainy Dallas, Texas night, FBI agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) arrives at his office to interview a man who claims to have evidence in Doyle's current investigation of the so-called God's Hand Killer. In Doyle's office sits a man calling himself Fenton Mieks (Matthew Mcconaughey) and he does have a heck of a story to tell. Fenton explains that he knows who the God's Hand Killer is, because he is his brother Adam (Levi Kreis). Of course Doyle is skeptical, but after a small part of Fenton's story is confirmed he decides to hear him out. From there Fenton rolls into a tale right out of a Stephen King novel.
In flashback, we see Fenton and his younger brother Adam walking home from school. The boy's mother is dead and they are raised by their loving father (Paxton). Things turn bad when, in the middle of the night, Fenton's Dad has what he says was a vision from God telling him that there are demons walking in human form, and that the family has been chosen by God to kill the demons. Young Adam believes his Dad without question but Fenton is frightened and believes his father is crazy. From there Fenton and Adam are forced by their father to witness and take part in brutal killings that Dad says aren't murders, because they weren't human.
Young Fenton is played by Matthew O'Leary. Far from his cute villain in Spy Kids 2, O'Leary carries a great deal of the film's drama and carries it off very well. As for Paxton, while many were impressed by his performance, all I could see was that same rock headed lummox he played in Weird Science and Trespass and just about everything else he's been in. McConaughey is strong but undone by the film's ridiculous ending.
It isn't just the ending that bothered me about Frailty. While I must credit Paxton on his directing, which is sure handed and frighteningly good in a number of scenes, the film has a rote quality to it. As the film is telling a gripping story about Fenton's horrific childhood trauma, Boothe and McConaughey are setting up the finale which goes completely off the deep end. Granted that it had very little choice of where to go. With any conventional ending being way too obvious, Paxton and writer Bett Hanley had to do something twisty. Unfortunately, what they chose is so off the charts ridiculous that the film collapses.
Paxton may have a good future as a director, but more importantly, anything that might keep him from acting is fine by me.
