Stone Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Stone Blu-ray Movie Review

Great performance can't save a movie that's not quite all there.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 19, 2011

You keep my soul in a dungeon.

The old Biblical parable says something to the effect of, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." That seems to be the driving force behind Stone, a star-studded little Psychological Drama starring Robert De Niro (Righteous Kill), Edward Norton (American History X), and Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil: Afterlife) that looks at the consequences of sin as it manifests on paper, in the mind, and within the soul. Director John Curran's (The Painted Veil) picture isn't a masterwork of the genre -- it tires too hard in places, doesn't make complete sense in others -- but it's at least a thought-provoking exercise in spirituality and the battle between right and wrong or, perhaps better said by staying within the obvious religious overtones that dominate the film, purity and sin. Stone is a morality play at its core that attempts to find answers to questions that revolve around rehabilitation, anger, spirituality, atheism, and deeply-hidden secrets and sins that may be controlled but never discarded. It attempts to find the nature of man, but seems to discover -- at least in the little bubble through which it operates and considering the characters it analyzes -- that nature is something different for every individual, no matter where life ultimately leads. In the end, the film seems content to simply cast not stones but a wide net that doesn't catch the meaning it so obviously yearns to find.

Release me.

Parole Officer Jack Mabry (De Niro) is only days away from retirement, but he's wanting to see his final cases through to the end, anyway, before handing over the reigns to a young upstart. One of his final cases is a unique individual named Gerald "Stone" Creeson (Norton), a man convicted of arson. Here's the catch: Stone acknowledges his guilt and believes the parole process to be a waste of time, even if that time is spent in prison where Stone has, to his credit, attempted to better himself by earning his GED. Stone sees through Mabry, looks past the paperwork and the façade and finds an angry man susceptible to temptation and influence. Stone's girlfriend, Lucetta (Jovovich), attempts to play on Mabry's weaknesses by seducing him and using sex as a means of influencing his decision to approve Stone's early release. As Mabry is faced with a cunning inmate and a seductive suitor, his life begins to spiral out of control as dormant negative emotions and desires rise to the surface that threaten not only his soul and what's left of his career, but his longstanding marriage to his wife, Madylyn (Frances Conroy, Maid in Manhattan), who is herself all to familiar with her husband's volatile nature.

Stone plays out as something like an out-of-body experience for the audience as they look down from above and watch the three primary characters act as they do and know what they think and feel even if the characters don't always verbalize their thoughts or act on their inherent instincts. It's not necessarily like other movies or even some strange voyeuristic experience; the film's continual backdrop of Christian talk radio and other Bible- and spiritual-based references, ideas, and subtleties give the audience a context in which to frame the actions of the characters and thereby choose whether or not to sympathize with them based on their relative strengths and weaknesses of character. Stone doesn't push religion; if anything it seems to posit that it -- or at least, Christianity -- doesn't work, at least for one of the characters. Still, the obvious confrontations that are right versus wrong, atonement versus guilt, and denial versus acceptance are constant themes throughout the movie. The "guilty" sinner in the film admits his wrongs and sees his parole hearing as a waste of time. The parole officer -- a man who attends church but has an evil streak and damning desires inside -- judges others and decides their fates when he himself struggles through more inner and, ultimately, physical turmoil than many of the men whom have had their fates decided by an individual as "guilty" as they are. The film's ultimate purpose is never quite clear; all that is clear is that it strives to be something greater than it is, to unearth some truism about the soul of man and the nature of right and wrong, but it never quite gets there. The movie is a big, meaty steak of which there's plenty to chew on, but ultimately the film fails to satisfy, at least in terms of where it so obviously wants to go.

Where Stone doesn't quite reach its thematic potential or even reveal what it really wants to be and where it wants to go, it certainly proves a success in terms of its cast. Stone is a phenomenal picture in terms of its acting; none of the primaries deliver career-defining performances -- neither Norton nor De Niro match their efforts in the other movie in which they've shared the screen, The Score -- but an above-average performance from Norton and De Niro is still better than the best efforts of a lot of other name actors. Norton's performance is the film's most compelling, even if De Niro's character seems to be the primary player. Norton's physical preparation is outstanding, and his character seems like some hybrid between his Derek Vinyard in American History X and his "second" part in The Score, the mentally-challenged janitor Brian. The character isn't that cut-and-dry, but Norton seems to channel a bit of both here. De Niro shines as a man who lives two lives: one a nobody parole officer who attends church and does his best to live a straight life, the other an ill-tempered, lustful, angry man who comes out of hiding when pressure and temptation rear their ugly heads. De Niro makes his character both sympathetic and despicable; his is not quite a Jekyll/Hyde persona, but he plays the part in such a way that it's easy to love the Jack Mabry who delivers his late brothers eulogy at the beginning of the film and equally easy to hate the Jack Mabry whose violent tendencies begin to erode the character as the story develops. Also of note is the excellent performance of Enver Gjokaj who plays a young Jack Mabry and passes the look test for a young Robert De Niro.

Stone Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stone arrives on Blu-ray with a solid, yet not quite exceptional, 1080p transfer. Anchor Bay's effort is rather typical of the studio's new releases; it yields a quality image that retains its natural grain structure that assists the transfer in producing a handsome film-like texture. The image takes on a slightly warm appearance in those scenes outside of the prison; an early church scene features a slight push towards red -- which is reflected in flesh tones -- but prison interiors favor a cold and gray appearance, resulting in more ghostly flesh tones. Detail is solid with the occasional close-up bordering on the breathtaking; facial detail is unquestionably strong in tight shots, but several medium shots sometimes favor a slightly soft appearance that minimizes the presence of finer textures. Other objects yield superb detailing; the rough texturing of the prison's brick walls, for instance, look fantastic. Blacks are fine if not a bit too strong in a few places. Small touches of banding and a few random white speckles are present but not necessarily all that harmful to the overall presentation. Stone looks good on Blu-ray, no doubt about it, but it never quite recaches the upper echelon where the best-of-the-best reside.

Stone Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Stone's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack is steady but sonically unremarkable. The film's sond design favors dialogue, which the track handles admirably through the center channel with nary a hiccup to be heard, save for a few instances where listeners might strain to make out every syllable of a few whispered words. Otherwise, the track delivers a few sound effects that are handled rather well; a surreal and plot-critical moment at the beginning of the film features a fly buzzing around the soundstage, and several rowdy prisoners may be heard as they play a high-energy game of hoops around the 36-minute mark. A few natural atmospherics find their way into the track; an outdoor meeting between Mabry and Mrs. Creeson features insects quietly buzzing, the sound emanating from every speaker. Still, this talk-heavy picture has little more to offer in terms of sonic interest. Anchor Bay's track handles the film's limited sound design smartly and efficiently.

Stone Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Stone features only one supplement of note, a shame considering that a commentary track might have shed more light on exactly where the film wants to go and what it wants to accomplish. Hopefully a special edition will one day surface, though it's not likely.

• The Making of Stone (1080p, 6:16): An all-too-brief piece that looks at the story and cast, constructed from the usual combination of interview clips and scenes from the film.
• Stone Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:33).
• Previews (1080p): Additional Anchor Bay Blu-ray titles.

Stone Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For as lofty a film as Stone wants to be, it might be best remembered for the re-pairing of Ed Norton and Robert De Niro and for a lingering shot of a topless Milla Jovovich that's by itself sure to sell a few copies of the film on home video. Stone's overreaching spiritual themes never quite resonate the way they should; the film works as a solid Psychological Drama but it's clear that the movie never finds the thematic weightiness it so desperately craves. Stone is worth a watch; it's a thinking man's film for sure and it's definitely going to serve as a topic of discussion once the credit roll, but the final picture is in need of some tweaking if it's to be all it can be. This Anchor Bay Blu-ray release of Stone yields a fair audio track and a strong video presentation. The extras, however, are disappointingly slim. Worth a rental.