"Kalifornia" (1993) - Movie Review

The fascination Hollywood has over the serial killers has been exploitative but has given great films too. The films range from melancholic study of them to plain horror. In “Kalifornia” I have no idea what the writer Tim Metcalfe and director Dominic Sena thought for the character of Early Grayce (Brad Pitt), a serial killer with a naïve and defenseless Adelle (Juliette Lewis) as his girl friend. It is grueling long and is not a piece of art to watch. It sure has the heart and soul of Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis for the role and it is bad for them to lose it over this film.

It is wildly and insanely consumable for a writer Brian Kessler (David Duchovny) to take along complete strangers Early and Adelle without even meeting them since he believes judgments to be the last and more over he is researching for his book on serial killers. He prefers the killers to be psychologically treated than to lawfully put them to rest. And he encounters one of course not aware of it to come to the lands of dilemma on his view towards a killer and the system’s treatment or his own.

It is profound on the opinions one has to seriously consider going through the hell and escaping it. The film does not get the hold of it when it has to be stopped from being a miserable creep journey especially when Brian’s girl friend Carrie (Michelle Forbes) from the start has bad feeling as any of us will have over tagging two strangers to a week long drive to California.

Even if we believe the plausibility of Brian fetching these two people not seeing face to face, the screenplay goes a long stretch on these characters. The back ground we know about Brian is minimal and his change of attitude towards the trip is surprising for us but frustrating on how much change he takes on from before the trip. He is soft spoken guy with less importance on the judgments we generally take on. He does not have doubts or suspicion after seeing Early and Adelle. He tells Carrie that to give them a chance. But it is more than a chance of danger, rather they would be totally incompatible people for a long drive aside the factor that Early kills people.

Pitt dissolves in to Early and is one of his toughest performances. He is a hunk and a control freak over women and well over many of his victims too. The question of why as it rings for Brian runs for us and the object of necessity is the only reasoning which comes up on his choosing the victims. Yet he kills one innocent gas station attendant for no reason and I mean completely no reason at all.

To follow him like a puppy dog is the Juliette Lewis perfectly cast for her stature and the innocence she sheds on her scenes. She chooses not to believe in the actions of Early. Duchovny and Forbes have nothing much to do than to let these two people do as they are made to become the focus of the film. But it is Brian who is supposed to be the chief inspector of his soul. It happens late in the film and is little too late.

The locations and photography with the haunting score is a beat to have a bleak look at this journey. It is not thrilling either as we are aware of the scenarios to be created. While Early shoots people insanely why he does not dispose Brian and Carrie when they identify him late in the film is a question of the character the writers developed. The desperate effort to prolong every single frame in to a running commentary of this killer and his supposed to be victims Brian and Carrie is not interesting either.

Dominic Sena went on to make “Gone in Sixty Seconds” and “Swordfish” a more commercial thriller with visual excellence on it and the origins are visible in this film. It is true that the answer to the reasoning of killings and capability of one to take another cannot be a written piece of paper or art or in film either. We all have opinions on desperate situations and clearly judge the people in the comforts of our location. Sena wants one of that people to put in that place and see what he does. Brian is that person but we see more of Early than him.