Review: Beast of Burden
DVD: Beast of Burden (2018)
Beast of Burden is the story of Sean (Daniel Radcliffe), a dishonourably discharged ex-air force pilot who has taken a job as a drug mule to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment. The flight we join him on however is a little different to his usual trips. This time he has a deal with the DEA that will lead them right to his contact. Burdened by his allegiance to both his boss and his deal with the police, and with just enough fuel to reach his contact, Sean is thrown into a seemingly hopeless situation. A situation that mounts and mounts the pressures against him and begins to get even more and more personal…
Sounds good right? If you think so then I’m sad to tell you that Beast of Burden proved to be an absolute chore to sit through. The film is a “bottle-film” meaning it primarily takes place in one location, in this case the modest cockpit of Sean’s small plane, and it proves to be a major problem for the film. There isn’t much in the way of anything visually interesting to look at or at least it doesn’t do enough with its location that can be considered of interest. The majority of the film is Radcliffe sweating in a tight space (If that’s your idea of visually interesting then be my guest) and despite his very strong performance, he isn’t given nearly enough to go wild with. The few times we are allowed out of the plane to breathe are for the most part in flashbacks. However these are to usually boring events taking place in bland locations, the only exception being the films fairly predictable but decent climax. By the time it rolls around however it just feels too little, too late.
Don’t get me wrong though, I really enjoy bottle-films. I think the format can really work in creating suspense. Just look at Rope, Phonebooth or, one of my personal favourite films, The Invitation. A good director, tight script and talented actors can really make even the smallest and blandest of locations intense torture chambers. Which brings me to what I believe is the film’s biggest problem; the script. Serviceable at best, its job seems to be solely to get from A-B. Events just mount and mount in increasingly contrived ways to the point where bad things are being thrown Sean’s way literally just because at some points. Dialogue seems to be 100 percent for the sake of story progression and leaves no room for nuance. The few vague attempts at nuance come off as clichéd and lazy and leave every character, with the exception of Sean, feeling like a none-character.
The film’s saving grace however is Radcliffe’s performance. Sean is portrayed as a man walking on thin ice between the devil and the deep blue sea. His performance is tense and honestly quite heart-breaking. Despite every gripe I have with this film I genuinely felt sympathy for Sean as a man who was just trying to do his best with the situation he’s been dealt (Perhaps there’s more of a meta aspect to Radcliffe’s performance than I originally thought). Add to that a decent American accent that doesn’t break throughout and you’ve got what could have been a career defining performance. It’s a shame that Radcliffe wasn’t given more to work with.
A boring experience yet adorned in sad little cracks of potential in the form of an interesting set up and great lead performance. Beast of Burden just doesn’t meet the mark needed to compete with other classic bottle-movies. It’s especially a shame when considering Radcliffe’s work that went into this but sadly a snail’s pace and bland script sadly can’t be saved by a lead performance alone, even if it is pretty good.
Not so much a Beast of Burden as it is a Beast of Boredom, there is much more out there like this that is worth your time.
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Review by Joel from a disc kindly supplied by Thunderbird Releasing.
