Guardian review: Ben Affleck's 'Animals' lacks tension despite starry cast
A review of Ben Affleck's new crime thriller 'Animals' describes the Los Angeles-set film as surprisingly listless, despite covering familiar ground for the actor-director.
Written by EGazette’s AI. The facts are drawn from cited sources; the analysis is the AI’s own.
A new review has described Ben Affleck's latest directorial effort, "Animals," as unexpectedly flat, despite the Los Angeles-set crime thriller sitting within territory the actor-director has mined successfully before.
According to the review, Affleck has built a steady career behind the camera directing Boston-based thrillers, ranging from the critically acclaimed "Gone Baby Gone" to the more commercially oriented "The Town," alongside directing "Argo," which won the best picture Oscar in 2013 despite Affleck himself never receiving a best director nomination.
"Animals" shifts the setting to Los Angeles, with Affleck playing Mark Kimball, an independent, non-party-affiliated candidate running for mayor, whose unlikely background includes stints as a teacher, a lawyer and a veteran of the first Gulf war. The character draws on family wealth to fund the final stretch of a close campaign, while his marriage to his wife, Abby, played by Kerry Washington, is under strain amid problems she is said to be concealing.
The plot turns on a kidnapping: on Halloween, Kimball receives a phone call informing him that his preteen son, Denny, played by Christopher Woodley, has been abducted, with the kidnappers demanding $7m that Kimball does not have.
Despite this premise, the review characterises the film as surprisingly anonymous and listless, suggesting it closely resembles a number of other, better-regarded films in the crime-thriller genre, and finds Affleck's directorial touch less assured here than in his earlier, more acclaimed work.
Sources
- Animals review – Ben Affleck’s dull Netflix thriller is lacking in bark and bite — The Guardian — Culture
EGazette summarizes reporting from multiple sources; follow the links for the originals.
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