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Prison drama captures attention with matching of Robert De Niro and Edward Norton

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

The prison movie "Stone" features Robert De Niro at the top of his game, but without knowing what the rules are.

Now in limited release in New Jersey, and playing in New York and Philadelphia, this slowly rolling "Stone" has captured attention for matching De Niro with Edward Norton, considered by many as his counterpart in a younger generation.

Angus MacLachlan's untidy script does offer the two men plenty of opportunity to play off each other. Much of it is set in the prison office of Jack Mabry (De Niro), a parole eligibility officer wrapping up before retirement.

His last hard case is Norton's Gerald "Stone" Creeson, desperate to get out after eight years in the joint. His crime was setting fire to his grandparents' home. In his favor, his cousin had already killed them.

An opening scene suggests the movie may have other things on its mind than escaping the big house. A prologue shows a young Jack, played by Enver Gjokaj, threatening to throw his infant daughter out the window when his wife announces she wants to leave him.

Flash forward four decades, and De Niro's Jack is at his brother's funeral, that wife still by his side. He starts to give a prepared eulogy, but chokes up and puts it aside, instead expressing heartfelt thanks.

As Jack drives to and from his home in a rural suburb of Detroit, the radio crackles with the exhortations and mutterings of preachers and the would-be saved. But it's when Jack is at work with Stone that the sinning matters.

Although this is Michigan, Norton affects a cracker/homeboy accent and cornrows, and for a time these superficialities overwhelm his character. He gradually finds his footing, as Stone plays at being reformed, even "reborn." When Jack asks him what the word means to him, though, Stone stares blankly.

But MacLachlan originally wrote "Stone" as a play and it shows. The two actors might strike sparks live on stage, where contrivances such as the 1930s-style radio counterpoint could add atmosphere. As deeply as De Niro burrows into his character, though, the transition to the screen spotlights the ramshackle writing.

Milla Jovovich was so anxious to work with the two actors that she didn't even insist on having a part. Her Lucetta is Stone's wife, a combo kindergarten teacher/bedhopper, who is nevertheless pining for her man. She is called upon to repeatedly tell Stone she would do anything for him.

Once upon a time, Jovovich was a prominent model; super might be stretching it, but successful. Then she began making folk-rock music, and with her decent writing skills and small but pleasant voice had a hit in long-ago 1994. She landed parts in arthouse movies, that were not necessarily successful, but often interesting. She was culturally useful.

Come the 21st Century, and Milla is known as the face of the "Resident Evil" video game turned movie franchise. Also, although Jovovich might be classified as an acquired taste, for her willingness to take off her clothes at the whims of directors and screenwriters. Plus ça change, that's what MacLachlan and director John Curran want from her, too.

Jack Mabry's wife Madylyn is played in that opening scene by Pepper Binkley, who then gives way to Frances Conroy, of "Six Feet Under," for the bulk of the movie. In her extensive career on stage, movies and TV, Conroy has shown the acting chops to stand up to De Niro.

Here, she isn't asked to, just read Bible passages to him and have another drink while he stares into space. When she suddenly snaps out of her 43-year funk, it comes against the run of play.

Still, the script wants us to consider some deep questions. Is Stone's apparent conversion, courtesy of a New Age tract in the prison library, really real? Will Jack heed the Bible and believe? Will Lucetta jump in bed with someone else?

Draping its noirish melodrama in pseudo-philosophical musings, "Stone" masquerades as serious inquiry into belief. It remains watchable for De Niro's performance, but there's only one response to its pretensions: Wholly crap!

Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it