8/10
Jonathan Jackson blew me away
2 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Jonathan Jackson was the best thing about the movie. Judy Davis had the showier role, but it was Jackson who drew me in. Kenny's arc, from a teenager who tried to rebel against his mother but failed, to a young killer, to a broken man too pretty to last in jail, to a hardened prisoner finally coming out from under his mother's thumb, was epic. And Jackson's subtle, powerful performance actually made me feel empathy for what in reality is a convicted murderer. Now that's good acting.

This kid is impressive. He led me through Kenny's transformation, from his rebellion to his capitulation and despair, and then to his rebirth into a killer, and final transformation into becoming a man, in a sense, by separating himself from his mother. The human and weirdly Oedipal undertones in this movie were fascinating.

I enjoyed it.
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