THE REAPING (Stephen Hopkins). 104 minutes. Opens today (Thursday, April 5). Rating: NN Rating: NN
Hilary Swank has two modes. First, there are the unforgettable award-winning performances in Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby and, for television, Iron Jawed Angels. Then she pays the rent, which explains most of her other movies, like The Core, The Affair Of The Necklace and her new horror flick, The Reaping .
Hollywood plainly has no idea what to do with Swank. She’s not conventionally pretty enough to play romantic leads and has given no indication that she has a sense of humour for comedy. She should start looking to the indies rather than trying to act her way out of this paper bag, wherein she plays a sort of super-scientist and former minister who lost her faith when her family was murdered. Now she’s off to the Louisiana Bayou to check out a river that’s turned to blood and a kind of re-enactment of the Biblical plagues of Egypt.
Two words: incoherent mess. Really, if you must, try to figure out what the hell the ending is attempting to say. I have a high tolerance for religious horror movies, but yeesh. Two more words: David Morrissey . They couldn’t find an American actor who’d take the male lead (was Stephen Dorff busy?) and went with Sharon Stone’s shrink from Basic Instinct 2.
