Suburbicon

Sometimes films arrive with such a pedigree attached to them that you think to yourself they can't possibly fail. A-list leads and an A-list director. It's going to be great right?? 

Wrong.

In a 1950's town purpose built to reflect the American dream, a family consisting of Gardner, Rose and son Nicky, suffer a tragedy after they dare interact with their new African American neighbours. In the aftermath of the tragedy Nicky realises the story he is being told isn't quite fitting together. Meanwhile those new neighbours are having some big troubles of their own with a baying mob wanting them kicked out of town.

Suburbicon is a film split down the middle and those two halves are just too different to mesh together. One half is a film noir/black comedy and the other half is a troubling look at racism in small town America. If each half of the film had been turned into a full length film in it's own right you get the sense they could have been great but pushed together they jar horribly with one side inevitably getting the short straw. (Guess which side). At the end we discover why the plot line exists but by then it has just fizzled out into a weak ironic punchline that even though it was aiming at being satirical just feels distasteful.

Tonally it jars too. The noirish side feels in places like a greatest hits of Hitchcock. A blonde leading lady (pick one!) . Investigators snooping around (Psycho). A young child and their suspicions (Shadow Of A Doubt). Dark sexuality (basically every Hitchcock film). Not that this is a bad thing, it's just that it feels odd whenever we cut back to the other storyline.

I've painted a picture of this being bad but there's still plenty of good in it. We get to see a side of Matt Damon as Gardner Lodge that's new. Oscar Isaac in a small role as an insurance investigator is great fun. There's some funny sight gags. Jason Bourne on a child's bike will make anyone smile. There's a welcome bit of dark humour involving a sandwich that will give you a wry grin. The small but painful scenes of violence have a gooey physicality about them that comes straight from the Coen Brothers, the time Clooney has spent with them has certainly rubbed off. The other side of the story is upsetting but doesn't sugarcoat the darkness of this era in America. Racism is the norm. The film doesn't shy away from it. We get to see it in all it's ugliness. The film hints that the only way to rid America of racism is to cut out the deadwood and start again with youth but looking at the state of the country 60 years after this film is set........yeah, that's not going to work either. 

Director George Clooney has made a film that tries to jam too much in. It's a fine looking film but there's just too much going on. He's better than this as his debut film Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind proved. As mentioned early we get to see a different side to Damon but he's not particularly special in it. Pretty subdued TBH. Julianne Moore as Margaret is mostly wasted, apart from an Aruba themed speech near the end. Noah Jupe as Nicky is good though. Watching him grow more and more suspicious of what's going on around him was entertaining. Karimah Westbrook as one of the new neighbours plays her role with a fierce dignity but the story doesn't give her enough to do at all. Finally Oscar Isaac turns up about halfway through the film and adds a nice shot of energy in a fun role. 

There's some good in here and some interesting ideas but the failure to fully and comfortably fit together is what ultimately brings the film down. A disappointment.