Straw Dogs

Movie Title-- Straw Dogs

Release Year--  2011

Running Time--  1 Hour and 50 Minutes

Director--  Rod Lurie

Cast-- James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard, James Woods, Dominic Purcell

A Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife go to live in her hometown in the deep south and ready her father's house to be sold after his passing.  Tensions begin to build in their marriage and a conflict with the locals ends in violent confrontation.

Hollywood couple David (James Marsden) and Amy (Kate Bosworth) Sumner go to live in Black Water, Mississippi, Amy's hometown, to prepare her father's house to be sold after he passes away.  Once arriving in town, they go to eat at a local bar called "Blackies" where they run into Charlie Venner (Alexander Skarsgard), Amy's high school sweetheart.  David gives Charlie a roofing job at Amy's father's farm and tells Charlie he can start the next day.

The following morning Charlie brings his crew of men to fix the barn roof, playing their music too loud, waking up the Sumners and after a few hours of work, they leave to go hunting.  This behavior continues for weeks, with the group of locals taunting the couple and Charlie making  Amy increasingly uncomfortable until things finally come to a head when the couple finds their cat dead and David fires the workmen.

The couple goes to the first high school football game of the season and their presence there makes Amy uncomfortable, so they leave.  On their way home, Amy tells David that she wants to go home to L.A., which distracts David, causing him to look away from the road and when he does he hits Jeremy (Dominic Purcell), a local man who is mentally handicapped that is being accused to harming one of the girls in town.  They take Jeremy back to their home and once there, David calls for an ambulance.  Charlie is listening to the police scanner when the call comes in, so he tells the girl's father where Jeremy is and with their guns in tow, they head up to the Sumner's house.  Once they are there, they demand David give up Jeremy and when he doesn't surrender to the group's demands, the night ends in violence.

I must say, this was not one of my favorite films.  It does have a few high points but the story falls a little flat.  I think one of the biggest problems I have with this film is Kate Bosworth's lack of accent.  The locals of Black Water, Mississippi have a southern accent, some of them thicker than other's but Bosworth's character doesn't have one hit of a southern accent.  This is explained away in the beginning of the film when Charlie says "I love the new accent Aimes." and she answers with "It's for work." but I just don't feel like that is a good enough explanation.  Everyone with an accent always keeps a hint of it and being in her hometown would bring it back out some.  To me it just feels like an excuse, not an explanation.  

I also have a problem with David, although at a few points in the movie I do  feel for him.  I think that James Marsden did a great job but I just don't like David's character.  David is an outsider that wants to fit in and make his stay in an unfamiliar place comfortable but to me it seems like he goes about this in the wrong way.  He decides to give the locals the benefit of a doubt on numerous occasions, even after his own wife has given him warnings and to me that is just ridiculous.  She is more aware of how things are in her own home town, to me he should be spending more time heeding her warnings than trying to do things his own way.

I liked Skarsgard's performance in this film, although after the first half hour or so of this film, he does tend to make you hate his character.  As the leader of his little back woods band of friends and a person that the community looks up to, he only has to flash a smile to seem quite charming and then open his mouth again to show the jerk underneath and leader of the pack mentality that makes him a force to be reckoned with as the villain in this film.  

This film is a remake of the original film "Straw Dogs" released in 1971 starring Dustin Hoffman.  From what I have heard, the original was better but don't take my word on that because I have never seen it before.  For this film, unless you really really like one of the main stars, I would skip it and find something else to watch and Don't Forget the Popcorn!