Review – Affliction

If you’re in the mood for a bargain-basement lecture about the dysfunctional psychology of rural American masculinity, then boy does writer/director Paul Schrader have a treat for you. Nick Nolte plays an average mook making a living as a cop and general maintenance worker in small town New Hampshire. The poor guy’s slowly being driven insane by his own powerlessness. He hates his boss. He suspects a fellow worker of shooting a wealthy lawyer in a “hunting accident,” a murder mystery plot that either should have been the main point of the movie or should have been left out altogether. His daughter (correctly) thinks he’s a jerk. His ex agrees. His girlfriend doesn’t want to marry him. His mom dies. His tooth hurts. And on top of everything else, he has a pathetic relationship with his abusive, alcoholic father (James Coburn, who must have gotten his Academy Award for this role based on the “give the ol’ guy an Oscar” sentimental vote). Right up through the total collapse at the end, his distant brother (Willem Dafoe) periodically supplies a useless, over-wrought voice-over. I’m going to give this thing one star, but that’s based solely on my ill-advised choice to watch this cold, snowy picture in the middle of an uncomfortably cold, snowy stretch of weather. Maybe in July it would have been more welcome. Unlikely, but there’s always a chance. Some of the snowy landscapes were pretty. See if desperate