Review: The Long Walk
Official synopsis: A group of young men compete in an annual contest known as "The Long Walk," lead by The Major (Mark Hammill) in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or die.
The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence loves him some kids thrown into an possible situation to elevate themselves and their families out of poverty and this time instead of an arena we get 50 boys, chosen via a lottery system to participate in The Long Walk. Winners gets a bunch of money and one wish. Our main protagonist is Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) who signs up for the lottery with very specific reasons. He instantly befriends McVries (David Jonsson) among others.
A film with this premise gets about as brutal and gross as you would expect it to be, but what struck me was how instantly attached I got to Garraty, McVries, and their little group. There's a wide range of personalities on the Long Walk. Assholes, stoic meat heads, kids that are definitely not over the age of 18, and curious minds. There's one person in particular you kind of want to see go, then when he does you actually still feel bad about it. That's pretty impressive. I can't remember the last time I went so hard for a bromance on screen.
David Jonsson once again has me emotionally compromised. This guy can ACT. He's tough, but vulnerable and you instantly realize how good of a person he is. Hoffman also continues to show how much of his acting talent he got from his dad. This is easily his best performance and I hope he keeps getting roles that let him show his range like this. Another standout is Tut Nyout as Baker, a religious fellow on the Long Walk as well. He starts out by saying that he might as well make some friends, and he ends up with one of the most powerful scenes of the film because of the friends he makes.
This film is bleak, but it's so well made. Even though I watch (and read) a lot of Stephen King, I was not going into this expecting it to be one of my favorites of the year. I love it when I can be surprised like that.
Grade: A
This pretty much matches my opinion of the film. I read the book in 1984 and have been waiting for this adaptation since that time. There are a number of significant differences--the ending in particular is vastly different, but it does work. It maintains a lot of the intent of the book while providing something really surprising for the audience that went into this having read (and re-read) the original story.
ReplyDeleteDavid Jonsson will get no love come award season, and that's a tragedy.