Customer Reviews

Flock

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this movie and really didn't expect much coming in. But Richard Gere delivered his best performance to date and Claire Danes supported him very well. This is probably one of the most if not the most suspenseful movie I have ever seen. While it is a little stomach wrenching at parts I started to gag, it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Richard Gere deserves an Oscar for his role in this movie, and the cinematography is second to none. I highly suggest this movie.

The following review refers to "The Flock" (105 minutes) released in Japan where I saw it in theater.

The story of "The Flock" centers around the case of a missing girl. Or girls perhaps, and some disturbing photos. The thriller has an undertone of "The Silence of the Lambs," but in spite of its intriguing protagonist played by cast-against-type Richard Gere, "The Flock" is short on thrills, and some parts require an enormous amount of suspension of disbelief.

The most unique aspect of the film is the central role Richard Gere plays with slovenly appearance with unkempt clothes. Gere plays Erroll Babbage, veteran officer of department of public safety, monitoring paroled sex offenders. After 18 years of his work of supervising the registered offenders, Erroll, firm believer of his own theories about offenders, is not content with just visiting them and doing routine question. He cannot arrest them, but he thinks he can do something with his method, which is not exactly legal sometimes. Even his co-workers stay away from him, including his supervisor Bobby Stiles (Ray Wise). So in 18 days Erroll is to quit, or "let go" from the job.

To Erroll is sent an understudy Allison Lowry (Claire Danes). Erroll takes Allison under his wing and grooms her for the career as officer who can see through the "public presentation" of people. While training Allison, Erroll confides to her that he is convinced of one thing, believe him or not, that only he can know the truths behind the case of a young girl who suddenly disappeared.

As I said before, "The Flock" needs more suspense. Not many details are given about the missing girl (who might have just run away from home). Though Richard Gere is convincing as the man who is obsessed with his work, not much is told about the background of Allison either and her flat character weakens the master-pupil relation between them.

The film anyway keeps telling its story, fast-paced and stylish, with Gere's strong performance as its real power. However, "The Flock" becomes less and less credible in the second half. As it has something to do with sex offenders and Megan's Law, "The Flock," it is obvious, has one very important topic in it, but the film's plot, which poses some intriguing questions about the law and morality, does not delve into them.

Director of "The Flock" is Andrew Lau from Hong Kong, known for his acclaimed "Infernal Affairs" (original of "The Departed"), but internet site IMDb says Niels Mueller did uncredited re-shoot. I don't know which director is responsible, but the film, especially the opening, is full of jump-cuts, fast-forwards, double-exposures and other visual gimmicks that only help lessen the suspense. This unnecessary editing is regrettable because the cinematography itself is fine with the bleak landscapes (shot in New Mexico).

As to the role of Avril Lavigne as a young woman, it is not a big one. It is more like a cameo, and it is hard to judge whether her acting is good or bad.

And it is hard for me to judge the film either. During most of the time I was not bored, but that is not because of the slickly told but implausible story, but because of Gere's fine acting and the stylishly grainy photography and sinister atmosphere that reflects his character's mind. At the same time, besides the lack of suspense, I felt something is wrong with the film, which attempts to tackle one of the most serious issues, but somehow stops in the middle of the process.

Sporting a cool name and a hot temper Richard Gere stars as Det. Errol Babbage, a man watching over his Flock of registered sex offenders. Errol's methods are too harsh for his superiors so they give him one month before they let him go. Babbage is a loner obsessed with his work, so when one of his sickos doesn't provide the right answers he thinks nothing of slapping him around or beating another with a baseball bat. When a young girl gets kidnapped and held hostage Errol loses it and makes it his mission to bring her back before he shuffles off. Hoping to keep him in check his boss, (the great Ray Wise) assigns Errol a partner named Alison Lowry (Claire Danes). Babbage doesn't appreciate this so he breaks in his new partner by taking her to a sex dungeon where he rubs her face in how dirty and dangerous their job is. As more clues fall in to place Errol believes that one of his Flock whom he has tangled with before is behind this latest kidnapping. It's a genuine shame that more people aren't going to see this film since it was released Direct to Video. The directing by 'Infernal Affairs' Andrew Lau is solid and the performances he gets out of his cast are excellent. This is one of Gere's riskiest and best performances ever. Danes isn't bad it's just that her own work is overshadowed by Gere's powerhouse performance. The subject matter is disturbing and graphic which can make this a tough film to watch at times. Hopefully this little seen masterpiece will find an audience on DVD or cable.

Good movie thanks to the subject and Richard Gere - he really shines. Claire Danes is very low-key, which perhaps what the director meant for her to be, but the result is she projects no personality to speak of and thus forgetable.
I just had to write this review, for the sake of stating that I could not DISAGREE more with amazon editorial review. That review claims there's sexual tension between Gere and Danes. If there's, I completely missed it. I was actually expecting for something sexual to develop between the two, but nope - the bond could not come off more asexual. Another mindboggling editorial statement is that the movie "condemns sexual deviance while depicting it in absurdly lurid and titillating ways (the scenes in a porn studio/fetish market are slathered with moral indignation but ooze with repressed lust)". What??? If I were that editor I would keep these revelations to myself. Certainly did not find anything in the movie titillating - just utterly disturbing and nauseating.
In general, I found this movie great in a documentary/education sense. It's good to be aware of what kind of people lurk out there and what they are capable of.

I watched "Flock" with surprise, as I hadn't even seen promo's for it. I LOVED IT!!! I don't need to tell you whats in the movie, everyone else has already done that. I was amazed by the movie. Richard Gere, can play ANYTHING and make it come out good. I believe he did better in this, than he did in "Internal Affairs" and I believe that's saying a lot. While the movie is some what slow at first, it has to be. It has to get the people watching it, into what's going on. I feel that's hard to do, with the subject at hand. Sexual predators is a very hard subject to do in a movie. It's a touchy subject. Anyone in "real life", who works with these people gets a feeling about them. I doubt that many of them act on it. That's what I love about this movie. I felt myself WANTING to do just what Gere's character did. I can't wait to get the movie for myself. I own ALL of Richard Gere's movies and I haven't be disappointed in any of them. I feel Gere should get an award for this movie, as it IS an out-of-cast character for him, and he plays it so well. I really don't understand the bad reviews that this movie got. I guess that some people expect too much. I just love to watch a movie just for what it is. Now I'm not saying, I haven't seen what I thought was a crappy movie. What "I" think is a bad movie. verses other people would probably start an argument. I guess one persons bad movie is another persons good movie. Isn't it great we all don't like the same things???

Although THE FLOCK has some pretty good acting by veteran Richard Gere, and some okay shots that might harken some back to THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS days, the movie stretches credibility to the breaking point and destroys itself against a plot that really leads nowhere.

The film is about Erroll Babbage (Gere) who works for the department of safety and is preparing to retire. His office thrusts upon him his replacement, Allison Lowry (Claire Danes, Stardust), who quickly discovers that Babbage is obsessed with his job. And that job ain't very fun. He monitors hundreds of sexual offenders who are on parole in his jurisdiction. Allison goes with Erroll on many calls to check up on his "flock" of offenders and learns that he is in desperate need of retirement. But Erroll is good at his job even if his methods aren't. He taunts sexual predators and even has physical conflicts with them. Erroll justifies his actions by bringing up these deviants' pasts. It is this "good justification" that challenges the audience on some level, letting us see how brutal Erroll is and yet how out-of-touch he's become (by being too close to his job).

When a teenage girl goes missing in Erroll's "area", he immediate leaps to the conclusion that she was abducted by one of his flock. But how could he know? Is Erroll that good at his job? Allison challenges him and Erroll pushes back. Their battles become as fierce as Erroll's need to find this missing girl.

Although the set-up for the story was okay, it didn't have any umpf! I will give credit to Richard Gere, however, who plays the Erroll character very well. Battling retirement. Worried about everyone who's near his flock. Disgusted with those he's responsible for overseeing. Disgusted with himself for having to do some of things he does. Quite a change in character portrayal for Gere. But beyond him there's not much else. Some of the sets are okay (dark and dangerous) but there are so many other problems as to be laughable.

I'll be the first to admit that suspending disbelief is a requirement whenever watching films. But that suspension has limits. The biggest push against those limits is the destruction of EXTREMELY vital crime scenes. Someone as meticulous as Erroll would KNOW that moving a body would be a huge no-no. Or trampling through a crime scene. Or moving evidence. It went beyond and hurt the film to no end.

The other damaging part of this film is that we never get into Clair Danes' character, Allison. She's almost dropped by the wayside at the end of the film and we're never privy to what her intension might be: Will she stay or leave? Will she end up like Erroll if she does stay?

This isn't a horrible film as it does touch on some uncomfortable moral ground, but the story as a whole needed to be tightened up.

P.S. The fact that this movie went straight to DVD and didn't get air time at cinemas in the U.S. is pretty telling. As is the fact that only three other reviews are up here at Amazon.com at the time of my posting.

Richard Gere = 5 stars (and I never liked him as an actor til this flick (Pretty Lady.. give me a break), but here he SHINES! He is crazy and intense and PERFECT)
Claire Danes = 2 stars (in real life, I would feel bad for a whiny, easily frightened, naivete who somehow thought that patrolling sex offenders was the right career path. On second thought, no I wouldn't. Similarly, the producer/director has no excuse for either casting the wrong actress or directing her down the wrong path. She'd get one star, but that is reserved for Denise Richards' Bond girl portrayal)
Sets = 5 stars (dark, gritty, perfect for the film)
Plot = 1 star (the only comparable production to which to compare The Flock is CSI. In CSI, the "crime scene investigators" carry guns, do detective work, engage in harrowing showdowns with various mafiosi [depending on the CSI], etc. Here Gere et al pretend they are detectives and enjoy tromping through crime scenes, firing weapons willy-nilly, and conducting entire investigations without any sort of back-up. It worked for 7even where they were cops, but not here)
Oh and the spooky bad girl, Viola = 4 stars (scary and evil, not a 5 though; insufficient character development to be anything but EVIL, no shades of grey there)

This is one of Richard Gere's strongest performances - thanks to taut direction from Andrew Lau. Gere melds himself convincingly into the role of a man haunted by his past, the onerous aspects of his job, and the sexual offenders that he polices - aka his "flock". His character Errol Babbage finds himself in a very dark place - far darker than where Gere has gone before, as I recall him in roles like Internal Affairs. This film reminds me of "Seven" with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, but is more disturbing in many ways. Intense viewing and probably not for the faint of heart or those who expecting a comfortable feel good film or Richard Gere as eye candy...Claire Dane delivers a consistent performance as the protege stepping into uncomfortable shoes. They could've dialed it up even higher and avoided a Hollywood ending, but it's pretty gritty as it is. I give Gere's performance 4.5 stars.

well researched sex-tinged mystery utilizing risk assessment tools crafted by law enforcement and forensic psychological professionals. likely to keep you glued and guessing till the final scene.

I watched this last night on DVD. It was well-acted and suspenseful. It actually caused me to have a nightmare around 3AM so someone did something right.