Review: Force of Nature

Emile Hirsch is a cop who hasn’t recovered from a past traumatic incident that cost him the love of his life as well as seeing him demoted. Now he’s barely giving a shit and clocking in and out doing piddly police jobs in Puerto Rico. One stormy night he’s asked to get off his complacent, self-pitying ass to go to an apartment building with his eager new partner (Stephanie Cayo) to evacuate a few stubborn residents who don’t want to leave during hurricane weather. One of these residents is dying ex-cop Mel Gibson, who lives with his nurse daughter Kate Bosworth. Meanwhile, a band of would-be thieves (led by David Zayas) are about to storm the complex in search of supposedly buried riches – priceless artwork stashed somewhere in one of the apartments. William Catlett plays an apartment resident already known to the cops for his bizarre behaviour at the supermarket buying waaaaayyyyyyyy too much meat for his ‘pet’.

 

You might remember “Twin Falls, Idaho” from the late 90s, a low-budget flick with a fair bit of good critical praise and decent financial returns for an independent film. Well that film’s director Michael Polish (who also made “The Astronaut Farmer”) gives us this 2020 bit of schlock featuring two actors who have had somewhat negative press in recent years – Emile Hirsch and the one and only Mel Gibson. The results are dumb and unfortunately not the fun kind, despite featuring an artwork heist, horrendous weather, and a character who inexplicably keeps a tiger in his apartment. Yes, a fucking tiger.

 

You really know you’re watching a subpar product when your film features Mel Gibson and a tiger, but Kate Bosworth (AKA Mrs. Polish) ends up being the most impressive thing. I’m not saying Bosworth gives a great performance here or anything, but she’s the most consistent presence this thing has got. She’s OK. Kate Bosworth is always OK. ‘OK’ is kind of her thing, really. Film and TV veteran David Zayas provides dependable villainy, but sadly isn’t in the film nearly enough to really count. That’s a shame because I rather liked the straight-up, no-nonsense villainy he was providing when on screen. Lead actor Hirsch (talented when he wants to be) is a mixed bag here. He starts off playing his role genuinely affecting and tortured, but very quickly becomes snarky and sarcastic, which is an awkward transition. He’s occasionally amusing, but those early scenes hint at something much more interesting to me. Even worse is Stephanie Cayo who is just plain out of her element as Hirsch’s far too eager new partner. She’s flat-out overacting in every scene. Then we come to the most experienced performer here, Mel Gibson. In what is perhaps his worst screen performance to date, Gibson wildly overplays the ailing, angry, abusive ex-cop schtick. He spends most of his film swearing and coughing, which frankly isn’t very interesting to watch, and Gibson is capable of so much better. You can tell that Gibson’s playing a role originally intended for regular DVD slumlord Bruce Willis, as well. I guarantee it. Meanwhile, the low-budget dictates that we don’t get to see much of the tiger, just a couple of seconds of blurry CGI that doesn’t even look like a damn tiger. I thought it was an alligator, actually. Either way it shouldn’t be here at all given no explanation for its presence is actually given by screenwriter Cory Miller (in his first feature-length assignment).

 

Slow-paced and a waste of a perfectly good hurricane, this schlocky enterprise features a mixed bag of performances, and not nearly enough tiger to be up to snuff. It’s all over the shop and not very satisfying. Gibson is particularly terrible.

 

Rating: D+