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Savages2012 | 141 min | R | 2.39:1
It’s been a long time since Oliver Stone last visited the gutter, perhaps dating back to 1999’s “Any Given Sunday” and its aggressive depiction of the NFL. After touching base with his sentimental side (2006’s “World Trade Center”) and his beloved political routines (2008’s “W.”), the filmmaker is back to sharpening his knives with “Savages,” adapted from the book by Don Winslow -- and perhaps should’ve stayed as one. Expository to a numbing degree and needlessly graphic to obtain shock value, the feature is a failed cinematic masturbation session by a director who always forgets he’s capable of greatness. Coarse and half-asleep, “Savages” is a waste of Stone’s time and energy, falling back on tired habits of provocation best left buried with his 1994 sensorial blast, “Natural Born Killers.” 
Best friends with a bond in the marijuana business, botany enthusiast/pacifist Ben (Aaron Johnson) and former Afghanistan soldier/hothead Chon (Taylor Kitsch) have made a mint with their unique weed, sharing their fortune and a woozy woman named O (Blake Lively). Offered an opportunity to join a powerful Mexican drug cartel run by Elena (Salma Hayek), the boys decide to close up shop rather than agree to such a dangerous union, forcing Elena to intensify her demands by sending enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro) to kidnap O, using this brazen act to bend Chon and Ben to her will. Unwilling to abandon their love, the pair work out a way to steal money from the cartel to pay for O’s release, only to watch the situation spiral out of control. Left with few options, Chon and Ben work the angles to outwit Elena and Lado, hoping to secure their freedom and O using info provided by crooked FBI Agent Dennis (John Travolta) and hacker banker Spin (Emile Hirsch). “Savages” is constructed like a cat’s cradle, with double-crosses galore to successfully twist the material, requiring attention to a story that’s doesn’t deserve the concentration. The screenplay (co-written by Stone) is a messy offering, sloppily assembling a wide range of brutish characters after various prizes, most inconsequential. Perhaps the film’s greatest sin is that it kicks off on a note of chaos, plunging viewers into a world that’s barely defined with personalities built on defining characteristics, not motivation. It’s confusing and not in a manner that encourages further study, launching the proceedings in the dark, asking viewers to make sense out of situations that aren’t explained and characters who haven’t been introduced. In fact, it takes 45 minutes before we even learn Elena’s name and function, which should be information settled before the opening titles conclude. Instead, there’s Lively’s droning narration as O, teasing audiences with a coy perspective of life or death that fails to stimulate the puzzle, leaving important conflicts with Elena, Ben, Chon, and Lado a shambles. 
There’s almost no momentum to “Savages,” which grows increasingly random with its plot turns -- no small feat when 80% of the picture is devoted to characters discussing schemes and making empty threats. Imagining the movie as a sun-baked game of chess, Stone instead demands outsiders to watch him play solitaire, only raising the feature’s blood pressure with a single heist sequence where Chon and Ben finally display a show of force against the cartel, stealing money from a stash house. It’s a rare hit of excitement in an effort that would rather stage Skype-style conversations and threats over the internet than engage in any real heat. Even the sex is chaste, with O perhaps the first female in three-way history to take on two lovers while fully clothed. To make his movie land with greater impact, Stone orders up vicious acts of torture and murder to spice up the humdrum happenings. The graphic content comes off desperate, working to jolt the viewer awake with shots of gaping bullet wounds and dangling eyeballs. The director also toys around with empty calorie cinematographic stylistics that add nothing to the mix, instead reinforcing Stone’s creative impotency with verbose material. The bounce between ugliness and stasis doesn’t wear comfortably on “Savages.” 
There are a few highlights to appreciate, including Travolta’s spunky work as a shifty federal agent, and Hayek’s confident turn as the momma bear of the cartel, more concerned with acquiring her estranged daughter’s attention than focusing on Ben and Chon’s defiance. The rest of “Savages” dissolves on impact, a dismissal eased along by the embarrassing wordplay of the script (e.g. O has orgasms, Chon has “wargasms”) and Stone’s extensive third-act mischief, which covers two endings in an already overlong feature. With a story this convoluted and pace this glacial, one ending is more than enough. Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Travolta Director: Oliver Stone » See full cast & crew |
 
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