Film

Frailty (2001)

Director: Bill Paxton

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Texas: the 'God's Hand Murderer' has eluded the FBI for so long that when agent Doyle (Boothe) receives a visit from one Fenton Meiks (McConaughey), who claims to know the identity of the serial killer, his response is sceptical. Still, Doyle listens to the story, which starts in 1979, when Fenton, aged 12, and Adam, nine, lived happily with their widowed dad (Paxton) - until one night, when he burst into their room claiming to have been visited by an angel. Their divine mission, henceforth, was to seek out and destroy any 'demons' walking the earth disguised as ordinary folk. Paxton's first movie as director is better than you might expect. It has a first rate cast, and Bill Butler's camerawork and some deft editing help to crank up the tension. Some scenes are a little primitive in execution, but that's sometimes a benefit in this kind of American Gothic. Brent Hanley's script, while ultimately too tricky and tortuous for its own good, boasts enough intriguing developments to hold the attention, and it also treats such motifs as child abuse, paranoid delusion and religious mania with more than a little intelligence.

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