Ed Gein Review
by Tim Wick
We saw this film at the Butt-numb-a-thon. After the festival was over, I
was
talking with Moriarty (one of Harry's best spies) and he told me a story
about a teacher of his who knew Ted Bundy. Apparently he was very good
friends with her. Her family was helping with his legal defense and
considering mortgaging his house to help out. One day she was telling him
of
the plan to mortgage the house and he put his hand on her arm and said "you
know I did it, right?"
Ed Gein was technically not a serial killer because he was caught too
quickly. He had been robbing graves for years and using the body parts to
make furniture. Murder was something he got into very late in his career.
What makes someone go there? Be it a Ted Bundy or an Ed Gein, what pushes
them into that abyss?
The film Ed Gein tries to explore that question.
Being from Minnesota, I know a bit about the Ed Gein mythology and so I
honestly wasn't that nuts about seeing this film. I don't think I would
have
gone out of my way to see it had it not been shown at the Butt-numb-a-thon.
Having said that, I was glad I was "forced" to watch.
The main reason I am glad I saw the movie was because it contains a
fantastic
performance by Steve Railsback as Ed Gein. This is his movie and had his
performance not been absolutely dead on fantastic, the movie would have been
a waste of time. Railsback hasn't done much prior to this film. His most
famous work was as Charles Manson in the 1970's TV film, Helter Skelter.
He also has a recurring role on The X Files.
But he brought Ed Gein to life. Unlike The Talented Mr. Ripley, I was
never pulling for the bad guy to succeed, but I was pulling for him to find
a
way out of his madness before it was too late. I kept wanting to urge him
that he could still pull back from the brink. I sensed him wanting to, but
he was spiraling deeper and deeper into his own troubling psychosis.
The movie itself is OK, lacking a good narrative style to really knock the
ball out of the park. Since Gein was going crazy, the film does a lot of
flashbacks and dream sequences to mirror his psyche. Problem is that many
of
these scenes almost seem out of context with the rest of the film. Some are
so confusing in their placement that I found myself thinking about them for
some time before I could actually figure out why they were there to begin
with.
The pacing is a bit slow at parts. I don't usually have an issue with that,
but it almost felt like they didn't have enough story for their story, so
they stretched out scenes to fill time.
But like last year's Man on the Moon and The Hurricane, a performance
elevates this movie above being merely OK. The film will not be screened
before the first of the year, so Railsback will not be in consideration for
an Oscar this year. Next year's release schedule looks to get him in
theaters too early to be remembered come nomination time. That's a pity
because this is a performance that cries out for recognition.
Ed Gein was not evil in the way that we view evil. He was crazy. He was
tormented. He needed to be locked away where he could harm no-one but
himself. The movie makes that very clear. It's one failing is that we all
pretty much knew that already.
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