The Statement [HD]

Did I watch the same film as the critics?
I got a chance to watch the much maligned Norman Jewison film The Statement on DVD this weekend.

It's a damn fine film!!!

Without giving too much of the story away, the film is about an old Frenchman (played by Michael Caine) who is on the run throughout the south of France for war crimes he committed back in WWII. He has to excape both investigators and assassins (possibly from a radical Jewish organization) by taking refuge in primarily catholic churches.

It was actually filmed in France in real churches and government buildings. Excellent Hitchcockian cinematography and music. Well paced editing and outstanding acting from Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Northam, Ciaran Hinds, Frank Finlay, Alan Bates...and especially Caine. The screenplay was expertly adapted by Ron Harwood. And, for a film with a pretty low budget, the DVD transfer (anamorphic) is excellent and the 5.1 surround sound is decent.

What's up with the critics? OK, I'm a big Michael Caine fan, but that...

Michael Caine is fantastic in a complex and challenging role
Starring Michael Caine, this 2003 film is based on a real-life story of a Frenchman who conspired with the Nazis and then spent most of his life hiding in Roman Catholic monasteries. It opens with a chilling scene filmed in black and white of seven Jews being dragged from their homes and brutally murdered. Flash forward to 1992. The audience sees a "statement" being typed identifying this wanted man. It's supposed to be placed upon his body after he is murdered. But Michael Caine turns the tables on his stalker and murders the man who is after him.

During the rest of the film, Caine is the hunted, but it is unclear who, exactly is after him. Is it the relatives of the Jews he murdered? Is it the corrupt French police? Is the Church? Or it a person in a high position who is concerned about his political future? Anyway, Caine is on the run. And Tilda Swinton cast as a judge, is trying to find him before he is murdered. The story is confusing. But the emotion is...

Caine does ambiguity well
Although his films aren't always artistic successes, Michael Caine is one of my favorite actors, and at his best when his character is cheekily likable, e.g. in THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975), SLEUTH (1972), SECONDHAND LIONS (2003). Rarely, he plays someone hateful, the most recent coming to mind being SHINER (2000). Here, in THE STATEMENT, his on-screen persona is oddly ambiguous, and it's left to supporting characters to provide the plot's protagonists.

It's June 1942, and a young Vichy French police officer, Pierre Brossard, supervises the round-up and execution of seven Jews by a contingent of German soldiers. After the war, he's charged with murder and collaboration with the enemy, but he escapes from prison, apparently aided by former superiors in the police establishment. Now, it's 1992, and Brossard (Michael Caine) lives in constant fear of exposure. A fervent Catholic, he skulks from French monastery to monastery, wherein he finds refuge with the help of...

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