Who would have thought Bill “Game over man!” Paxton had this in him?
A genuinely creepy film, especially when you consider the impact that a father can have on his impressionable kids. This is Paxton’s directing debut and a really good one. He picked a simple movie and then made sure that he held the tone throughout, without resorting to cheap shocks, unnecessary twists and gory effects.
The plot revolves around a man “dropping by” the F.B.I. to claim he knows who is responsible for the deaths in the “God’s Hands” case. From there the bulk of the film is told in flashback. The guy is Matthew McConaghey, who plays an adult version of one of the boys we meet through these flashbacks.
I’ve seen enough of McConaghey to believe the guy can act if he puts his mind to it.
This leads me to ask why he would waste his career on “Aw shucks” doofuses and well meaning moron characters?
Maybe he’s just a guy that likes running around with his shirt off banging hot chicks and spending money, and making terrible films can easily finance this lifestyle? As good as he is in this movie he probably only made 10% of what he did on his latest crapfest with Kate Hudson, Jennifer Aniston, or (insert ditzy chick A).
So: The flashbacks bring us back 30 years where a single father, played by Paxton is raising two pre-teens Adam and Fenton. In early scenes they appear as a very tightknit family who all pitch in to make ends meet.
Late one night however Dad walks into the boy’s room in the middle of the night and rouses the boys, claiming that he has seen an Angel and the Angel has chosen the Family (not just Dad) to kill demons and act as God’s Hands. The kids understandably have never seen their old man act in this manner and act as you would if woken in the middle of the night to be told you are a demon slayer.
Over the next week Dad is visited numerous times and given more details of his bizarre mission, including weapons and ultimately real names of those on the list. After a week or so Dad promptly starts carrying out the task, and not only does he not hide it from the kids he actively seeks to involve them in the quest.
This is where the film edges into horror territory, although I ultimately have decided that it is more a psychological thriller than a horror movie, which is why it isn’t on my Horror Top 10 list. The fact that someone goes nutso and decides he is God’s assassin is one thing, it is genuinely creepy when he tries to force his typical innocent children into following his lead.
Fenton, the older of the two kids is around 10ish, I would guess Adam is around 7. Fenton being older realizes that what Pops is up to isn’t your standard daddy-son day activities, Adam unfortunately is still quite impressionable and fully gets into proceedings, leading to conflict between Dad and Fenton and also Fenton and Adam, who wants everyone to get along and desperately wants to believe Dad’s claims.
And hilarity ensues…..
The impressive feature is that Dad never veers off into a maniacal Taxi Driver impression, he is simply a caring Dad who happens to also have visions and needs to kill people on behalf of God. Paxton plays the father straight throughout, which makes it easy for the children to be impressive simply by acting as anyone would if thrust into such a situation.
I read recently where someone chastised children for not knowing the fundamental difference between right and wrong, only it wasn’t “swearing is bad” or even “stealing is bad”, it was boys from another culture growing up without an understanding of how to treat women, (Hint – They grow up treating women as far less than equals). The basic point was that regardless of upbringing they should better know the boundaries of reasonable behaviour.
This is where Frailty is so effective, as unfortunately as much as we would like to think that human behavior has some basic decency, and we all grow up realising what is black and what is white this is simply not the case. The two boys in Frailty are old enough to initially suspect something is different in Dad’s demeanour, and what he is saying is not normal, but they are so influenced by their Father’s teaching that they will themselves to want to believe, so much that they ultimately change their mindset.
There can be no more powerful teacher to a young child than their parents, it is who they trust more than any other figure and who they turn to for the truth, so while they probably initially know something is amiss they so want his acceptance that in time they are willing to betray their own youthful common sense in order to be more like their Dad.
I won’t bother going into the possibilities hinted at in the last 15 minutes of the film, I would only remind any viewers that as the story is told by one of the children, you are watching his interpretation of events, hopefully this would clear up any unnecessary theological theorizing.
All I will say is that this is a very good, if understated film and deserves more recognition than it has received, since it is about 7 years old and no-one talks about it.
I recommend that you give it a shot and see for yourself.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. A more than worthwhile alternative to crappy slasher flicks. (Though stay tuned fans, I have a pile of dodgy horror flicks to watch this week.)
