by FilmInk Staff
Worth: $15.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Brad Pitt, Uber, Anna Lambe, J.K. Simmons
Intro:
… affectionate and heartfelt …
David Ayer’s third film in as many years is a far cry from what he was up to during one and two. And not just because he isn’t teaming up with Jason Statham again. In comparison to The Beekeeper and A Working Man, or pretty much anything else Ayer has directed so far, this may still feature a leading man who knows his way around a firearm, but the presence of shootouts or action set pieces are all prologue. Instead, Heart of the Beast is a more stripped-back survival thriller, akin to an even quieter take on Channing Tatum’s Dog, with one man and one canine fighting tooth and fang just to make it back to civilisation after a plane crash.
Aside from a mirthful turn by J.K. Simmons early on, and bookending appearances from Anna Lambe, it truly is just Brad Pitt and Uber interacting with each other and their environment for the length of the film. Similar to Dog, where James Belmont (Pitt) and his combat dog Odin (Uber) are on an even keel as far as characterisation and prominence in the narrative, although this arguably goes even further in making the dog the star of the show. And Uber is more than capable of delivering on that, giving a genuinely compelling performance as another soldier struggling to leave the war in the past, even giving Pitt a run for his money in conveying the cerebral horrors of PTSD.
While their bond is so affectionate and heartfelt that just the two of them caring for each other on its own makes this worth checking out, the stakes set against them elevate that considerably. Starting on a sharp note around the circumstances behind the initial crash, their traversal through woodlands, swamps, raging rivers and slippery impromptu bridges is remarkably intense. Every moment of bodily damage, which are both comfortably restrained and punctuated with wincingly realistic gore effects, is sudden and harsh. Tree branches pierce flesh like bullets, jagged rocks break bones like concussive grenades, and tumbles down steep inclines feel like being dropped out of a helicopter. As nightmarish as the actual war flashbacks, filmed through burning reds like a vision of literal Hell, the natural world is seemingly just as hazardous.
This all plays into the psychological edges, with Belmont and Odin unable to sleep soundly for the echoes of gunfire in their heads, now forced to put that experience to practical work once again. There’s an underlining tragedy in their shared history of combat, described in-film as something no living being should have to go through, and as they push and snarl their way towards the sunlight, it hits on a familiar war story conceit that it’s the people who fight alongside you that are the most vital weapons you have. Those that have seen horrors but haven’t let it shatter their connection to those close to them. This is where Uber’s performance really hits its high points as, whenever he and Belmont encounter other animals, the way his eyes get across an understanding of what physical combat takes from the mind of a living thing is quite heartbreaking. And it’s what makes his and Belmont’s determination to heal and soothe each other enough for even the hardest of hard-arses (especially them) break down in tears.
Heart of the Beast is some of David Ayer’s strongest work in years, arguably the best since his previous Brad Pitt collab, Fury. Pitt gives a solid and physically demanding performance, but Uber is a revelation; if there isn’t already a campaign to get Uber a Palm Dog, there had bloody well better be one in the works. The film craft is exquisite, from Jared Michael Fry’s gentle soundtrack to Mauro Fiore’s expressive use of colour to Dody Dorn’s traumatic cuts between hellish past and purgatorial present, all tied together into a powerful ode to man’s complicated relationship with other animals, including itself.
