44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Smart, Thought-provoking, December 31, 2002
Starring Ryan Gosling (MURDER BY NUMBERS) and David Morse (THE LANGOLIERS), this movie is a *must see* - it's a bittersweet drama about how lonely people deal with loss and vulnerability.
The writers/directors of THE SLAUGHTER RULE are Andrew and Alex Smith - two brothers from Montana who workshopped this script at Sundance. In fact, THE SLAUGHTER RULE was up for Sundance's Grand Jury Prize. The kernel of the script came from their own high school experiences where every boy snickered that the coach was rumored to be gay. Though they never found out if that was the case, the Smiths were haunted by the fact that they dismissed the coach that easily based on school rumor and inuendo.
Gosling plays Roy Chutney, an affable high school student in a small Montana town where there isn't much to do except drink, play football and go to the local bar. In the beginning of the movie, he loses his father and is cut from the varsity team. The combined losses hit him very hard but he is soon recruited to play 6-man football by a local never-do-well, Gid (Morse) who has his eye on Roy. The term "slaughter rule" is apparently a football term where a game is lost if the opponents are too far ahead in points.
This is a fascinating and touching film about small town life and about loneliness. We're asked to accept Gid for what he may or may not be - a lonely older gay man who's only joy in life is to coach football. We're also asked to accept Roy for what he is - a teenager with a world of problems and yet no one is cutting him any slack.
The real star of this movie is Ryan Gosling. Ever since his breakthrough performance in last year's critically-acclaimed but little-seen Neo-Nazi drama, THE BELIEVER, critics have only had a chance to notice his talent in the flawed MURDER BY NUMBERS. In fact, Gosling and his co-star Michael Pitt were the only good things about the Sandra Bullock 'by-the-numbers' murder mystery.
One good way of judging a performance is to imagine if any other actor could play that role - or, how would the movie be different with someone else. In THE SLAUGHTER RULE, this is easily Gosling's best performance. Here he is, a high school student (say 17), who has to deal with his father's death, school traumas, an aloof mother, an unsympathetic girlfriend (Clea Duvall) who just wants to get out of town. His only 'father figure' is his coach who borders between being too close which in turns makes Roy worry about his own sexuality. It's an incredible emotional barrage but Gosling handles the part poignantly - as an angry teen, as a sensitive young man, and finally as someone who earns some maturity and wisdom.
David Morse, a familiar character actor, shines as Gideon, an older man with a melancholy past. His performance is a careful counterbalance to Gosling's confused and vulnerable young man. Gid is a man who has had a hard life but knows what he wants.
Two incredible and outstanding scenes in this movie (and there are many wonderful moments) - one is a line-crossing confrontation between Roy and Gid (I can say no more but everyone in the audience was hyperventilating with the tension in the air) - and the other is a smart bedroom scene between Roy and his girlfriend when he looks to reassure his masculinity but is instead taught a bracing lesson about intimacy.
Set in Montana, THE SLAUGHTER RULE also uses music to great effect - the sort of crooning that enhances the loneliness that big open spaces have. Cinematography is icy-crisp. Editing is a little rough in the beginning of the film, but overall THE SLAUGHTER RULE is a wonderful debut film for the Smith brothers and a powerful new additional to Ryan Gosling's successful transformation from child actor (MMC, Young Hercules) to mature actor. How good is Gosling? Last year, I went to vote for Jake Gyllenhaal at the IFP awards. I saw THE BELIEVER and voted for Gosling instead. He's that good!
THE SLAUGHTER RULE will unfortunately be a small indie film release, but look for it in your art house theaters and later on video. It's a wonderful experience you won't soon forget.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Uneasy relationship between coach and quarterback, July 13, 2003
Overall, I liked this film for many of the reasons already mentioned here. It's a high school sports movie that brings to mind the scores of films that have been made in this genre (e.g., "All the Right Moves"), and it tries mostly successfully to work against that genre's conventions. It also explores the male-bonding that underlies the relationship between coach and player by bringing together two males who are both outsiders, each needing the other to fulfill a sense of purpose in lives that are otherwise going nowhere.
Whether the coach's need for "friendship" crosses a boundary is an ambiguity that, from the point where you first see it, makes the film not an easy one to watch. And the filmmakers have created a tension there (sexual or otherwise) that their film doesn't totally resolve -- which is maybe appropriate in the hard-bitten world of the movie, where football is played under bleak winter skies on snow-swept, frozen fields. Endings are often difficult, and this one feels somewhat contrived and melodramatic, but the overall film remains strong, and its moody narrative sticks with you long afterward.
Morse, as the coach, has played this kind of character before and portrays well a man of both pride and weakness, who has experienced hurt and failure. Ryan Gosling is wonderfully natural and plays the young protagonist with what seems to be complete understanding. His affair with an "older" woman may seem a nod to convention, but the relationship is written and played for the truth in it -- that his immaturity makes him less than what she's hoping to find in a man. Equally memorable is the cinematography, capturing the Montana landscapes in wan winter light. The music is perfect.
I like films that are not quite predictable, show me a world I don't know, and play with conventions, expectations, and ambiguities. This one held my attention from beginning to end.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sundance Slaughters Cinema Standards, February 26, 2004
Sundance directors and screenplay writers constantly slaughter the rules of filmmaking in splendid style. THE SLAUGHTER RULE is no exception to the Sundance standard, however it slowly twists the rules before it nearly breaks them right off.
Set in the bleak and dreary high school years of a cold and frozen-ground Montana, this story of the strong-arm sport of six-man football and a young recruit who recklessly tries to control the often brutal game is clearly a sad satire of lives that many wouldn't bother living. The actual regulation, the slaughter rule, allows a team to simply quit when they're getting badly beaten by their opponents. As our young athlete slowly realizes that you can't stop the weather and you can't keep out the cold and you can't control what you don't respect, he begins to wish that life had a slaughter rule of its own.
Ryan Gosling (THE BELIEVER) continues to excel from one movie to the next. He's like a young Edward Norton (AMERICAN HISTORY X), choosing films for their class and their taste rather than for their big screen appeal. David Morse (THE NEGOTIATOR) is a complex and emotional coach with an odd and dubious attachment to his players. The writing by brothers Alex and Andrew Smith is incredible, as is the often black and white cinematography set in their Montana home. A dreary soundtrack score by alt. country forefather Jay Farrar is subtle and hits home in a simple sort of way. Farrar manages an uppercut from a light slap similar to the way that snow-capped mountains cut the landscape.
This film is not for everyone. It's a football movie on the outside, but don't look for ANY GIVEN SUNDAY or VARSITY BLUES here. Many viewers will have issues with the slow storyline and with the lack of resolution when the credits roll. But, these are the spectators that have problems looking at life as well.
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