GiantApe67
06-27-2008, 01:59 PM
Me first meet Vann as he's washing his Ford pickup on a perfect, sunny day. It's so nice, that he even offers the viewer a winning smile and wave. This simple action is disarming because he's got a boyish, open-faced grin that speaks volumes of the character he's playing. The Minus Man is that kind of movie that just draws you in from the very beginning. After that, we see Vann's option of either taking a left or a right and you know that either way will end quite badly for just about everyone that he comes in contact with. He meets his first victim in a tiny watering hole that serves "No pie. No pizza. Just booze." He gets friendly with the only patron who also seems to be on her own path to slow self destruction.
That is the key theme of the Minus Man. Vann contemplates that people are drawn to him in the same way moths are attracted to light in the dark. People are drawn to Vann because they see him as a charming outsider in a world of small-town troubles and personal crisis. In this coastal town in which Vann takes up residence and employment, we're introduced to the reluctant high school football star who feels the added pressure to please both his parents, coaches and devotees themselves. There's also his boarders, who marriage seems to be disintegrating because of a basic lack of communication and hidden self abuse. Now the moral dilemma of asking if these people deserve to die comes into play. Of course, nobody asks to be murdered, but the majority of known deaths that take place from Vann's hands are dying (literally and figuratively) long before he ever arrived.
Owen Wilson's laid-back and introspective performance is one of my all time favorite character driven movies in years. He plays Vann so well that you can't help but feel an instinctive pull towards his drifting serial killer. The direction evokes Hitchcock's work in the fact that while he's an open target (as is his victims) you are almost cheering for him not to get caught. Screen veteran Brian Cox carries himself perfectly as a man with his own set of issues that takes his new houseguest in with a clingy urgency. Jeanine Garafalo also stars as a boozy love interest that can't seem to decide what to make of him.
To sum it up, seek out The Minus Man (it's on The Movie Channel now via Verizon FIOS) if you like your horror in the form of the smiling, friendly guy right next to you. After all, what could be scarier than that?
That is the key theme of the Minus Man. Vann contemplates that people are drawn to him in the same way moths are attracted to light in the dark. People are drawn to Vann because they see him as a charming outsider in a world of small-town troubles and personal crisis. In this coastal town in which Vann takes up residence and employment, we're introduced to the reluctant high school football star who feels the added pressure to please both his parents, coaches and devotees themselves. There's also his boarders, who marriage seems to be disintegrating because of a basic lack of communication and hidden self abuse. Now the moral dilemma of asking if these people deserve to die comes into play. Of course, nobody asks to be murdered, but the majority of known deaths that take place from Vann's hands are dying (literally and figuratively) long before he ever arrived.
Owen Wilson's laid-back and introspective performance is one of my all time favorite character driven movies in years. He plays Vann so well that you can't help but feel an instinctive pull towards his drifting serial killer. The direction evokes Hitchcock's work in the fact that while he's an open target (as is his victims) you are almost cheering for him not to get caught. Screen veteran Brian Cox carries himself perfectly as a man with his own set of issues that takes his new houseguest in with a clingy urgency. Jeanine Garafalo also stars as a boozy love interest that can't seem to decide what to make of him.
To sum it up, seek out The Minus Man (it's on The Movie Channel now via Verizon FIOS) if you like your horror in the form of the smiling, friendly guy right next to you. After all, what could be scarier than that?