 |
Dec 25,2005 - Jan 8,2005 |
The essence of human Frailty
Actor Bill Paxton takes a different turn and goes gothic with directional debut
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2002-04-14
 |
|
Actor Bill Paxton
|
Bill Paxton loves to talk... so much so that he answers three of my questions before I even ask them.
Bill who? you ask. "Story of my life," he laughs about people recognizing his face but rarely his name. And yet this gregarious, constantly smiling and frat-boyishly charming Texan has starred in some of the biggest grossing movies of all time: Titanic, Terminator, U571, Apollo 13, Twister, True Lies and Aliens. Not to mention two of the most memorable art-house movies ever: One False Move and A Simple Plan.
But today, sitting in a Toronto hotel room, the 47-year-old actor is not here to talk about a role, but about his feature-directorial debut, the gothic thriller Frailty.
Set in the heart of Texas, the film centres on Fenton Meeks (played by Paxton's U571 co-star Matthew McConaughey), a mysterious man who explains to a Dallas FBI agent (Powers Boothe) why he believes his younger brother (Matthew Kreis) may be responsible for a recent series of unsolved murders: It seems that the killer goes by the name "God's Hands," the very same moniker used by Meeks' religiously fanatical father (played by Paxton in flashbacks). As the film explains, Dad believed he had been ordered by God to kill demons walking the earth in human form and has conscripted his young boys (Matt O'Leary, Jeremy Sumpter) into a murdering spree.
"There are elements in the story that are contemporizations of Old Testament stories, particularly the story of Abraham which plays predominantly in the film," says Paxton careful not to give away any clues to the many twists in the plotline. "Ultimately this movie is a tragedy. I saw the film as science fiction, fantasy and horror with these elements. For me it's gothic film noir. It had its roots in the country where people are isolated, a rural murder mystery."
A remarkable debut by writer Brent Hanley, Frailty is the rare case of the role coming before the film. In fact, it was producer David Kirshner (Titan A.E.) who first offered the script to Paxton in the hopes of him co-producing in order to attract a star cast and, subsequently, financing.
Page 1/...Page 2
|
| Home / Back to Top |
|
|
 |
|
|
</ td>
