Film Review of Mean Creek
Year: 2004 Reviewer: Chris Docker
A group of school kids set off on a boat trip planning to teach a bully a lesson he won't forget . . .
It's a story that could easily be turned into a standard plan-gone-wrong story and deteriorate into a run-of-the-mill teen horror flick. But instead Mean Creek is an understated and surprisingly thought-provoking film that has understandably been notching up a few awards worldwide.
Sam, a young lad (maybe about 12) gets a serious kicking from a very overweight boy, George, who flies into a rage when Sam goes near his camcorder. It has a visceral feel to it that makes us slow down and question. The opening shot is the view from the camcorder, then switches to a very ordinary 'normal' shot as the beating continues. Through the film, the cameras often change, contrasting stunningly beautiful river shots with very mundane ones or 'camcorder' quality. It's almost as if we're being shown several ways of viewing things - which one is right? Sam's brother organises the group and 'invites' George on the boating trip, with a plan to humiliate him, but Sam invites his 'girlfriend' Millie along without telling her the plan. Difficulties arise when she finds out, and also by now we know that George has learning difficulties and genuinely tries hard to be a nice person, even though he is prey to sudden rages.
In this scenario of shifting sympathies, the film focuses on the inward, unspoken thoughts of the characters. For instance, we watch as Millie struggles inwardly with the moral dilemmas. There is also the contrast between the loud-mouthed bravado of all the kids and their more thoughtful, intelligent side - one that we so often don't see when viewing children at large.
Their difficulties in resolving the problem are mirrored by our own - bullying is not a problem adults have been able to 'solve' - in fact violence in schools seems to have escalated in the past decade. Do we try to understand? discipline? exclude? Education has rushed ahead, banning corporal punishment, but the advanced 'people skills' we aspire to have, that can defuse any situation without the threat of more old-fashioned methods of discipline, haven't quite caught up. Order breaks down and the worst instincts may in some cases get free rein.
There's a moment in the film when we wonder if the children will go down a path that would perhaps save George by putting their new-found compassion for him into practice, but would it work long term? When children leave school for the wider world they enter a system where force is used as a last resort, but even that use of just force has lost some of the respect that it should have to be effective. At one point in the film, where they argue over the best course of action and where prison might be just a faint possibility were the resultant crimes confessed, the dissuading argument by the ringleader is about "going to prison and getting raped every night for the rest of your life" - showing a (perhaps believable) lack of faith in the justice system. America has one of the highest incarceration rates per head of population of any modern country, yet violence continues undiminished. One of the threads of the film suggests that the heavy-handedness of the justice system draws people into criminality because they feel that, having strayed a little, they have no choice but to embrace a life on the wrong side of the law.
When I was at school (in a time when caning had almost, but not quite, been completely phased out), I had been bullied frequently by one boy (who picked on many kids). We had a liberal gym teacher who accepted my suggestion that I challenge the bully to a fair fight with boxing gloves. It worked - we knocked hell out of each other for a few minutes then laughed about it in the changing rooms - and he didn't bully me or my friends again. We had learnt the idea of 'fair' or 'justified' violence that is very different from emotional, uncontrolled outbursts. Punishment should both be controlled and for the benefit of the recipient, so that the growing mind can learn correct ways. If punishment (or reasoning) is ineffective (as it often is now in our school system) then we are letting down those children who need it. Perhaps liberalism in schools has gone too far.
Made with considerable self-discipline, Mean Creek (with a budget of just £260,000), proves that American indie cinema is alive and kicking.
Rating: 8/10
Film Reviews Index Page: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z