Bruiser

Bruiser (2000)


Directed by: George A. Romero

Starring: Jason Flemyng, Peter Stormare, Leslie Hope

Other Actors of Note: Tom Atkins

Plot: The young executive of a publicity agency Henry Creedlow is a man that has repressed morbid thoughts and is walked over by most of his acquaintances: his wife is cheating him with his boss and stealing money of his investments with his best friend; his housemaid is frequently stealing his house and offending him in Spanish; even his annoying poodle does not respect him. While in his daily morning routine listening to a talk show on the radio, he hears a man committing suicide live because he had been felt miserable and disrespected for a long time, and Henry feels impressed with the tragic event. On the next morning, he wakes up with his face covered by a white mask, changing his personality and seeking revenge against those that have humiliated him. Taken from www.imdb.com.

Jason Flemyng, the most lukewarm actor in Hollywood.

Bruiser is a very apt title for this movie, I think it was named such just because studio execs knew that it would be the whipping movie critics everywhere. Indeed it's hard to find a film that is so commonly beaten and picked on. This may of course be because it was a George A. Romero film that doesn't involve zombies or old men being eaten by cockroaches, something that's considered a capital crime against many moviegoers. However Bruiser is not a bad film, it's just simply not as good as it could be.

Bruiser tells the tale of Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) a helpless nobody who's being stepped all over. His best friend James (Andrew Tarbet) is stealing from him, his wife Janine (Nina Garbiras) is cheating on him with his asshole boss Milo (Peter Stormare), even his made is ripping him off. What's worse is he knows most of this and still does nothing about it.

Henry is walked all over by everyone and does nothing to stop it. His life is going nowhere, he's losing his identity. He has dark fantasies of hurting or killing those who do him wrong but they remain just that.

But everything changes when one day Henry wakes up and his face is a blank white mask. His identity is truly lost and he must go do something about it.

Okay, now his face is gonna turn green and he's going to put on a yellow suit and fight gangsters... oh wait, wrong movie.

There's no one in the cast of "Bruiser" that really makes a big splash acting-wise. Jason Flemyng is as dull and forgettable as he's always been. But in this case I feel it works to his advantage, Henry is the ultimate dull and forgettable guy so the casting of Jason Flemyng is spot-on as the faceless loser of the picture.

Peter Stormare is the other actor that sticks out, but not in a good way. His performance is somewhere between "The Brothers Grim" and his Volkswagon commercials. His performance is so over the top that it should be funny, but it's not funny, it's annoying.

One good person to see is Tom Atkins, who as usual plays a detective. But hey, if it's not broke, don't fix it. He is still fifteen kinds of awesome and plays his part wonderfully.

"I'm trying to look like The Crow... it's not working very well."

There's not much effects-wise to talk about aside from Flemyng's prosthetic mask (which is fairly well done) and a couple gore effects that were too brief to tell if they were well done or not. So I'm just going to go ahead and skip to storyline.

The story is fairly well done, in many ways it's akin to "American Psycho" about a man lost in the crowd who has no face, no self worth, and ends up taking on those who make him feel that way. Of course, this being George Romero, the message is delivered with all of the subtlety of a car chase in a Michael Bay film. But the message doesn't need to be subtle, the mask that becomes Henry's face works well as a plot device.

The story is a well-done piece about revenge and taking back ones own being from the people who stole it from him in the first place. The problem is just about everything in this movie is overdone, the boss, the girlfriend, the parties they throw, the dialogue, Henry works for a fashion magazine called BRUISER for Christ-sake.

The movie experienced several setbacks and I believe this is part of why "Bruiser" is so bizarre. I think originally it was meant to be a sort of over-stylized noir tale about a man taking back his identity, but that seems to have been lost except for the overall tone of the film. Still if you don't look at it too closely the story is satisfying.

Oh yeah, the Misfits appear late in the film and pretty much suck up every shot they're involved in.

"Bruiser" is a very under-rated film that doesn't deserve nearly half the shit that gets flung its way on a daily basis. It's far from George Romero's best work but its still a satisfying little film with a good message.

I give "Bruiser" a 3 out of 5. Give it a rent sometime.