Stranger

It appears that in the entertainment industry few are completely satisfied with the means of artistic expression currently engaging them. Actors are notorious for their desire to direct just as many directs take any opportunity afforded to them to move in front of the camera. This phenomenon it not restricted to those that typical use film as their craft professional wrestlers are entering the cinematic fray. It’s nothing new though. ‘Andre the Giant’ had a featured role in ‘The Princess Bride’ and Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura performed in Predator before entering politics. Of course the wrestler who made this transition most successfully is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who took a page from the proven methodology of Arnold Schwarzenegger moving from the natural big, tough guy roles to family oriented comedies. One of the latest men to move from the wrestling ring to the movie set is ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. He is relative new to this aspect of his career so much of the advertising still includes the ‘Stone Cold’ moniker in his name. He is also still in the tough guy action phase of his migration to movies so his performance here in ‘The Stranger’ should be viewed with his learning curve in mind. One problem that Mr. Austin encounters here is the type of film this is. Instead of going to the normal route of a straight forward action flick to get his feet wet he selected as far more difficult genre, the physiological thriller. While this may be out of his acting range at the moment I do admire his dedication to this new stage of his career by pushing himself with this part. After all you’ll never improve but staying safely in your comfort zone. With that in mind Austin deported himself quite well in this his first starring role in a feature film. He nails the action, which is to be expected but has trouble with establishing an emotional connection with the audience but as will be elaborated shortly this was not entirely his fault.

The screenplay was provided by a new coming to scripting, Quinn Scott. As with the acting the writing demonstrates novice missteps although there it untapped potential buried within the story. In order to construct a psychological thriller properly the author has to burrow into the mind of the viewer. Scott begins this process with a well used but still workable plot device of amnesia. There is something inherently frightening about not knowing the most fundament part of our self perception, the knowledge of self identity and personal origins is what grounds each of us psychologically. Pull this out from under an individual inevitably results in disorientation, frustration and anger when it happens to a person of such raw, physical prowess as Austin it become intimidating to the audience. Scott then starts down an interesting path by having ‘The Stranger’ chased by men intent on torturing and eventually killing him. This treatment does slowly restart some memories gradually filling in pieces of the puzzle. What goes off track in the story is something that Scott hopefully address and rectify in his next screen play; he over complicates matters. Austin’s character is being chased by the FBI and the Russian mob. I can understand wanting to place the hero between a rock and a hard place; wanted by both sides of the law both the film may have fared better with a more streamlined plot. I usually prefer the psychological over the visceral but in this particular case just going for the action would have been more satisfying to the viewers. The rationalization for the violence would then be delayed leaving the audience in the same state as the Stranger trying to figure things out. As with Austin’s performance the script by Mr. Scott has potential but requires some seasoning and a touch more control. This film is not the directorial debut for Robert Lieberman. He has a few much lighter films to his credit along with episodes of some of the better television series under his belt. This includes ‘Eureka’, ‘Brothers & Sisters’, ‘Dexter’ and ‘Strong Medicine’. What impressed me about his resume is his willingness to try a different genre and format with each new project he engages. While this doesn’t afford much time to grow in one particular type of show it does something that can be far more valuable; giving Mr. Lieberman an eye that is not restricted to one vantage point. The directorial style needs refinement. The opening mélange of random sounds and snippets of black and white frames has been the de facto standard for memory loss for too long and someone has to step up to the plate and trying something else, anything else. Considering Lieberman’s background I would have expected he could have gotten more out of an admittedly weak script. Fans of ‘Eureka’ can at least find some distraction watching Deputy Jo (Erica Cerra) as the psychologist trying to help the hero but neither one are able to generate any onscreen chemistry.

The film is available in Blu-ray but this will not be your go-to disc to show off your system. The 1080p video is dark; I had to use a setting on the television that boosted the contrast and brightness in order to catch the details. The blacks are indistinctive and the colors just don’t ‘pop’. There are two main sound tracks; the default is a lack luster Dolby 5.1 that is mixed very low for and action flick. A LPCM pushes the gain a bit but there is a lack of directionality.

Posted 06/09/2010