Twelve is the story of rich high school students and their forays into sex, drugs, and crime. Starring Chase Crawford, Emma Roberts, Fiddy Cent, and one of the Culkin boys. First of all, is this what life is really like for the wealthy in New York? These actors are supposed to be 16, 17, and 18, and maybe I am just naive, but trying to imagine this stuff actually happening to kids in grade 11 was kind of a hard sell for me.
One of the problems I found was that there were too many characters and in the 90 minutes plus, we don't learn enough about any of them to really care about what happens to them. The ending doesn't come off as sad or an outrage because we don't really know enough about Claude to understand him, or enough about everyone else to care if they live or die. I liked the structure of the film - how it went from character to character. I even warmed up to the weird narration. Sure the narrator says things that are unnecessary, and Keifer Sutherland's voice is perhaps a little to strong and low for the mood; but there was something to those short and simple sentences and an omniscient narrator that was interesting.
Directed by Joel Schumacher, who was responsible for the abomination that was Batman and Robin, but also the classic that was A Time to Kill, something is just missing in this one, and I think it is depth. There is an interesting story to be had here, but not enough is said, and not enough is done to develop the characters.
Shout-outs to Emma Roberts, who I have always been fascinated by because of her famous Aunt, and Fiddy, who is actually a pretty good actor. Also keep an eye out for Erik Per Sullivan (Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle) who is all grown up.
Like most of the characters, this one is shallow.
No comments:
Post a Comment