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Sunday, February 3, 2013

It's The Rage (1999)

A woman (Joan Allen) leaves her husband (Jeff Daniels) because of his obsessive jealousy. The personal assistant (Josh Brolin) to a paranoid computer wizard (Gary Sinise) quits his job to work in a video store. A closeted gay lawyer (Andre Braugher) is unhappy with his relationship to an unstable lover (David Schwimmer). A manipulative street tramp (Anna Paquin) provokes her psychotic brother (Giovanni Ribisi) with her lies. Two cops (Robert Forster, Bokeem Woodbine) are tired of criminals getting off. These divergent storylines criss cross until by the film's end, all the characters have met their fates either as a victim or a shooter by handguns. After last year's Aurora, Colorado and Newton, Connecticut shootings, this film is more timely than ever. Lest one think this is just a proselytizing anti-gun rant, think again. That the film is anti-gun is a given but it doesn't sacrifice a compelling, well written story to its political agenda. All the performances are uniformly excellent across the board and the screenplay by Keith Reddin (based on his play THE ALARMIST) is a detailed and precise character studies. Directed by James D. Stern, whose only feature film this is.

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