Since no one got it, let me explain this to you. This is an attempt to adapt the theme of a 1966 movie that Ingmar Bergman made called, Persona. In that movie, a prominent actress has had some sort of mental breakdown, becomes unfeeling and has retreated from communication with the world. A maid is hired to take care of her who is healthy, vibrant, carefree. As the two characters develop a connection they start to rely on each other for validation and emotional support, eventually the characters reverse roles. The actress returns to the top of her professional and it is clear that she has drawn energy and emotional power from the maid. At the same time the maid has been left an enervated mass of self-doubt and paranoia. The artist transformed herself by art, but accomplished that by sucking the life out of the original youth and vitality of her companion.
The same thing happens in this interaction between a prisoner (Ed Norton) and his case officer (Robert De Niro), or at least that is the idea. In the beginning, the prisoner is vengeful, paranoid and self-destructive. At the same time, the case officer is a religious man with a settled working class existence, apparently respected in his job and a tranquil, picturesque family life.
The scenes of interaction between Ed Norton and Robert De Niro are of the essence because we see the case officer slowly become more manipulative and hostile, at the same time that the prisoner becomes more natural and willing to let go to the extent of acceptance if he is denied parole.
The problem is that beginning with what must have been a masterful script, somehow the director, and most especially the film editor, never got the message and apparently never knew what their own movie was about. As a consequence they tried to twist into a straight thriller with ambiguous motives, artificial tension as we follow closeups of the officer's gun and phone calls to the officer's home that might or might not be threatening.
Both of the characters have a guilty secret from their pasts that they are attempting to deal with. The prisoner finally recognizes his guilt and puts it in perspective, and at the same time he derives a sort of spiritual sustenance by a direct connection to the sound current of the yogis. The case officer never deals with his guilty and it isolates him from his wife and the religious aspects of his life that ultimately give him no spiritual sustenance.
In the end the two characters have reverse positions. The prisoner is both free and healthy. The case officer is trapped in own sickness of guilt and paranoia. The final confrontation that takes place in an alley does not work because, apparently for Hollywood purposes, the case officer has a gun in his hand. You now understand this movie better than the director did. Too bad, because it could have been great. Can you imagine, Persona accessible to American audiences? It could have been a classic.
The same thing happens in this interaction between a prisoner (Ed Norton) and his case officer (Robert De Niro), or at least that is the idea. In the beginning, the prisoner is vengeful, paranoid and self-destructive. At the same time, the case officer is a religious man with a settled working class existence, apparently respected in his job and a tranquil, picturesque family life.
The scenes of interaction between Ed Norton and Robert De Niro are of the essence because we see the case officer slowly become more manipulative and hostile, at the same time that the prisoner becomes more natural and willing to let go to the extent of acceptance if he is denied parole.
The problem is that beginning with what must have been a masterful script, somehow the director, and most especially the film editor, never got the message and apparently never knew what their own movie was about. As a consequence they tried to twist into a straight thriller with ambiguous motives, artificial tension as we follow closeups of the officer's gun and phone calls to the officer's home that might or might not be threatening.
Both of the characters have a guilty secret from their pasts that they are attempting to deal with. The prisoner finally recognizes his guilt and puts it in perspective, and at the same time he derives a sort of spiritual sustenance by a direct connection to the sound current of the yogis. The case officer never deals with his guilty and it isolates him from his wife and the religious aspects of his life that ultimately give him no spiritual sustenance.
In the end the two characters have reverse positions. The prisoner is both free and healthy. The case officer is trapped in own sickness of guilt and paranoia. The final confrontation that takes place in an alley does not work because, apparently for Hollywood purposes, the case officer has a gun in his hand. You now understand this movie better than the director did. Too bad, because it could have been great. Can you imagine, Persona accessible to American audiences? It could have been a classic.