Eslee Kessler – Google

I loved this film. Sorce is such a great director and as usual gets the maximum depth of character from his actors. All three leads were so good. Having read the book, I see how he anchored the story in the triad relationship between Ernest and Molly and King Uncle. The film functioned on many levels- the trust, love, compassion between husband and wife, the different values of the two cultures, the obscurity between truth and falsity, the power of evil and its impact on the ignorant white.settlers as well as the Osage people; the corruption of and innocence in Ernest's character, superbly played by De Caprio in all its subtleties and opacity. There is something so helpless, innocent, and heartbreaking in the portrayal of Molly and her resilient Osage community. And DeNiro is so great in developing his character growing more powerfully dominant and evil from scene to scene. A surprising ending of a radio show makes an ironic comment on the history- will this story be anything other than entertainment? Especially since the outcome of these tragic murderers is that they all survived too long in a corrupted judicial system . Rather than the usual biographic summary of each character at the end, he chooses a format of a radio show in the 1950's to report on the outcomes of these people's lives. It somewhat softens the blow of history and injustice done to innocent people. Because , after all, we're at the movies. I would have preferred the usual documentary type closures to support the historic reality of the story.

This movie was strangely disturbing because the poor family had no compunctions about displacing the employees of the wealthy family; their plotting to displace the dress very and housekeeper were not humorous but more selfish and desperate without regard for any others..though the son did realize the gravity of the situation when they found the former housekeeper’s husband living in the basement.. the impact and selfishness of their plan weighted upon him/ thus the metaphorical breaking of the traditional stone and its promise of wealth. They were not behaving with respect or honor...the plot thickened ominously, and culminated with exaggerated violence- the ending letter and fantasy image was not very satisfactory. Some moments were funny and satirical but I thought the film was very off balance and frankly, the violence was not believable.