Clan in ‘Animal Kingdom’ survives on crime
Published 8:23 pm Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Family values can be a funny thing. Take the Codys of Melbourne, for instance: A more sociopathic homestead could hardly be imagined.
We’re introduced to the criminal clan in “Animal Kingdom” through the eyes of “J” (James Frecheville), a 17-year-old lump whose mother dies of a drug overdose. The opening scene, as the zombielike J calls for help from the family’s cheap home, might be the most striking sequence in the movie.
J’s grandmother, terrifyingly known as Smurf (Jacki Weaver), takes the boy under her roof. This is not so great for J, as Smurf turns out to be the mama grizzly for a nest of thugs, whom she fiercely protects.
The three Cody brothers have distinct personalities: oldest son Andrew, ominously nicknamed “Pope,” is a cold-eyed psycho who can make his brothers’ knees buckle with a glance.
Pope’s scary quality is all the more remarkable because the actor who plays him, Ben Mendelsohn, is so underwhelming in appearance. Compact, with a receding chin, Mendelsohn physically resembles Tim Blake Nelson or the former “Saturday Night Live” player Chris Parnell, but after you see him in this movie for two minutes you’ll want to know where the exits are, just in case.
His two younger brothers are played by Luke Ford (he was in the last “Mummy” movie) and Sullivan Stapleton; they team up for criminal activities with a friend, played by Joel Edgerton (of the recent “The Square”).
The police have had enough of the Cody mob and they decide to get tough. One officer (Guy Pearce, in a zany mustache) tries to counsel J, who will be confronted with the old “Godfather” rule about family coming first.
Director David Michod works his title metaphor — this is an urban jungle, and it’s survival of the fittest out there — a bit too overtly at times. But he does get the ordinary streets of Melbourne to bristle with a certain everyday menace.
Because of the zonked-out central presence of J, this movie echoes “A Prophet,” another film about an automatonlike protagonist who learns the ropes. “Animal Kingdom” comes up short in the comparison. But it’s a tough, well-acted crime picture, and unlike so many underworld epics, this one doesn’t seem to borrow from Martin Scorsese every few minutes.
