Saturday, October 22, 2016

"Imperium" walks too cautious of a line on a controversial subject



Mr. Harry Potter has finally done it.  Daniel Ratcliffe, at long last, has shed his young wizard exterior for a tough adult role, in which he shows anger, rage and conviction we didn't think him capable of.  As a young FBI agent who goes undercover in Virginia in order to infiltrate a gang of skinheads, Radcliffe displays some of the similar elements that Leonardo DiCaprio did in The Departed: their boy-next-door personas go through a tough, scarring make-over, in which not only those around them have to believe how gangsta they are, but their own selves as well.  Imperium, however, doesn't quite know what to do with such a touchy subject as Neo-Nazism and other Hitler-like followings; whereas the great American History X pushed the envelope in its protagonist's transformation, director Daniel Ragussis sacrifices not a single character, muting the drama quotient entirely.  It's not a complete failure, but one wonders what it could have been in a more daring talent's hands.
B-

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