Straw Dogs is the remake of the classic, 1971 Dustin Hoffman film where a man is pushed to his limits and forced into bloody vengeance. Our protagonist, David Sumner (James Marsden,) is a movie writer and his wife, Amy (Kate Bosworth), an actress in one of his films.
The couple moves to Amy’s hometown in the Deep South where they’re greeted with a strange sort of southern hospitality. A group of locals, lead by Amy’s old fling from high school, Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), offers their services to help the couple rebuild the dilapidated barn roof of their new house.
Societies soon start to clash and the good old boys that were helping the couple slowly rear an ugly side. Words are thrown and lines are crossed while the couple starts to become terrorized by the group.
Straw Dogs, on its own, not as a remake, was very well done. It shows the cultural differences between big city and small country. It shows the audience that even our own countrymen have a lot to learn about each other. For instance, the country boys getting up at the crack of dawn to start working, drinking while working, cat calling, etc. The story may have had a past movie and book to draw inspiration from, but the differences between both are displayed very well here.
Director Rod Lurie shows a great deal of appreciation to his predecessor Sam Peckinpah while still giving the movie his mark.
The acting in this movie deserves just as much, if not more praise than the story does, especially by James Marsden. All throughout the movie, I was saying to myself “So this is what it would be like Cyclops went postal.” Than I started to make a game out of it by imagining James Marsden screaming about how he finally got an edgy role and he was sick and tired of playing boy scouts every time he committed a gruesome act.
However, he didn’t exactly have to show that type of range until near the end of the film; the better part of this movie shows James Marsden in the same role he always plays. That is why the game works so well.
Straw Dogs isn’t groundbreaking, but definitely enjoyable. Bottom line here is, if you want to see Prince Edward/Corny Collins lose his mind and you are in for some gore, this movie is for you. I suggest going to see this in theaters just so casting directors will start to give James Marsden better roles outside the of the lame, pretty boy realm.
