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HARSH TIMES
Written & Directed by: David Ayer.
Produced by: Mr. Ayer & Andrea Sperling.
Director of Photography: Steve Mason.
Edited by: Conrad Buff.
Music by: Graeme Revell.
Released by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Country of Origin: USA. 119 min. Rated R.
With: Christian Bale, Freddy Rodriguez, Eva Longoria, Terry Crews, Chaka Forman, & Tammy Trull.

Jim Davis (Christian Bale) isn’t doing too well. Memories from his time serving as an Army ranger in the Middle East plague him, but he hides it from his Mexican girlfriend Marta (Tammy Trull) and his best friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez). Instead, the psychological rage he has bottled up comes out in spurts, which he hides behind his ultra-braggadocio demeanor. He wants to become a cop, but reacts to his rejection by the L.A.P.D. by throwing a violent tantrum with a fellow motorist. So the lure of the mean streets of petty crime with pal Mike win out. Bale plays Davis not really in the vein of another notorious back-from-war-and-unbalanced character, Travis Bickle, in that he’s not secluded from the outside world, but instead trapped in his insecurities and destructive behavior.

This is not one of Bale’s best turns, however, mostly because he isn’t reeled in by debut director David Ayer, who lets him off at times like a grenade and just waits to see what will happen. He does end up getting some interesting work from Rodriguez, who manages to present a wider range for his character. The lack of really exploring Jim’s psychological state from the war – aside from a brief and typical beginning dream sequence of Jim back in battle – is meant to be compensated by a visual style that at times is a little too uncomfortably close to the flashy and twitching editing/camera of Tony Scott’s Domino. When Ayer tries for more intense and graphically stylized camera movements in crucial moments (during gunshots towards the film’s end), it comes off as really tacky and unsatisfying.

I’m willing to give Ayer the benefit of the doubt though – the guy can write specific scenes very well. In the case of his best known previous screenplay (and possibly his best overall), Training Day, he dealt with similar material with the same gritty edge and moments of great, intense dark humor. But with Harsh Times, the same streetwise smarts and edge don’t meld so well without a really coherent story. In fact, until the final 20 minutes, there really isn’t too much of a narrative pull aside from “Jim and Mike meet up, they get wasted, f*** around, Mike deals with his wife (played by Eva Longoria in a one-note turn), and they meet up with gang-bangers before quickly slipping down to Mexico so Jim can visit Marta.” Some of these scenes do show Bale and Rodriguez working off each other believably, and there’s even one really excellent scene with Bale and Trull in the backseat of a car, which starts out erotically and sweetly and then turns far more dangerous. Yet the film isn’t really put together by a firm structure, which was one of the better things that could be said about Training Day. It’s not an un-admirable effort, but in the realm of the “tortured-soul-in-the-lower-depths” crime film, it’s just average. Jack Gattanella
November 10, 2006