The Proposition

Captain Stanley captures two notorious outlaw brothers Charlie and Mickey Burns . He makes a proposal to Charlie . If Charlie goes and kills the leader of their gang Arthur Burns and brings his body back they will be given an amnesty . If not Mickey will be hung on Christmas day which is nine days away

You always know what you're going to get with a film by Australian director John Hillcoat namely strong memorable drama that's best viewed with a ready supply of anti-depressants . You also know what you're not going to get , laughs , mirth and a strong narrative drive . Certainly both GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD and THE ROAD suffered slightly from a lack of a strong narrative drive and in this British produced pseudo Western set in 19th Century Australia there's also a sign of this flaw from the director

The premise is one that grabs you and leads you to ask what you would do in that situation but as soon as Charlie leaves town on his quest the story meanders slightly as we're shown lots of panoramas of the Australian outback with a vague mystical air which will remind you of Australian cinema of the 1970s where the landscapes were the stars of the movie . One also gets the feeling in the first third that you're might be watching an Aussie version of APOCALYPSE NOW where a man with a mission involving extreme prejudice finds his target building an empire amongst the natives

This doesn't happen thankfully and after a slightly unfocused first 40 minutes the story gets back on track with characterisation coming to the fore . THE PROPOSITION is much more character driven than the premise promises . There is a slight cop out in that Mickey is the poor unintelligent younger brother who has merely tagged along with the gang through family peer pressure and while Arthur isn't portrayed by Danny Huston as a stock psychotic villain with staring eyes and manic laugh his actions do more than enough to convince the audience that this rabid criminal dog needs to be put out of his misery . The characterisation between the good younger brother and the violent bad older brother could been written and developed as a bit more grey but there again it might have made it more difficult to cheer on Charlie the middle brother played by Guy Pearce

The cast are excellent and special mention goes to Ray Winstone who is a national institution in Britain and watching him here you're aware of how underrated he is and gives a depth to Captain Stanley a man tormented by trying to uphold the law without giving in to rough justice from the locals . It's perhaps difficult to believe a rough working class bloke would be married to Emily Watson's rather middle class Martha but Watson does manage to project an innocence that seems out of place but that's undoubtedly the point . One character that did puzzle me was Jellon Lamb . John Hurt of course steals the show every scene he appears in but is there any point to the character except to spout Darwin ? it's a slightly confused and unnecessary character

And THE PROPOSITION is a slightly confused film that stops it from attaining true classic status . It's a bleak nihilistic character study from John Hillcoat and contains all the strengths and weaknesses from the director's prior and future work . That said it's much better than most of the films the UK Film Council insist on wasting their money on from the same period