The Square

For what the poster seemed to offer, "The Square" was disappointing, a good "thriller" (as others said) that I guess didn't realize that a zinger is not the same as the other shoe dropping. This is a good film for large portions, but that was because I was always thinking there was something around the corner. Who knows. You may find the ending that. But I didn't think it was worth it, despite it being intense in small portions.

Ciaran Hinds-lookalike David Roberts plays Raymond Yale, a construction supervisor that is unhappily married and in a job that he is trying to get kickbacks from (via Barney, Kieran Darcy-Smith). He's having one of those affairs where he's always planning to run off with Karla (Claire van der Bloom), but never does. Rather crookedly, when she sees her boyfriend (Anthony Hayes) leaving, she pushes a single square into the attic and reaches and (as people said) "finds a lot of money." We never exactly find out where this money came from. The only thing that really matters is that it is money.

She obviously brings it to Yale, who suggests that if they want to take the money and run, they should burn down her house, so the money would "disappear." They contact Billy (Joel Edgerton, who wrote the script and who is fraternally related to the film's director, Nash), who is some sort of lowlife who can make a good job of it. The only problem is, Carla's boyfriend's mom is housesitting. Yale tries to call it off, Billy's assistant tries to relay the call, but of course it's too late, and the place goes down. Billy doesn't know, and he thinks it's a clean job, but when he finds out, it's not good.

So you can see how good of a movie this could have been, as it "unravels" (IMDB). But what happens is that not enough happens. We don't get to know enough about the characters, most of all Yale's wife Martha (Lucy Bell) and Billy's assistant. And the ones we do know enough about are not relatable enough. And if these things aren't going to happen, the intense scenes aren't enough, like the "car chase" an IMDB user mentioned. The score was one-note as well. But I would say that the last shot, subtracting the dumb, somewhat uncaring use of "Feed the Fire," was well-done. But this wasn't a sterling film, one that partially did its job but didn't entirely follow through. C+