Alpha Dog

Caught up with Alpha Dog on DVD last night, which was an early release from this year. The film has a good pedigree (no pun intended), with Nick Cassavetes as director and with stars both young (Justin Timberlake, Emile Hirsch) and more established (Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone). I was, however, unmoved.

This is the true story of how a dirtbag drug dealer, in an attempt to get money owed him, kidnapped the debtor's younger brother. The dealer in question, played by Hirsch, had a kind of personal charisma that attracted a menagerie of low-life hangers-on, all eager to do his bidding. He learned at the knee of his father, played by Willis, who apparently was some sort of mob-connected guy.

The film attempts to paint this film as being about lost innocence. The opening credits are over home movies of children at play, with Over the Rainbow playing in the background. Yes, we get it, even the most despicable adults start out as adorable children. Then we get the second message, in an opening scene with Willis, that it is all about parenting. These kids clearly have some bad parents (they are either criminals, impose too little discipline or too much), but it certainly can't excuse some of the behavior that is seen here.

Though the film is well shot, edited and acted (particularly by Ben Foster as the big brother of the kidnap victim) it is about a group of people who consistently do stupid things. At no point does anyone in this film have a clue, and at a certain point, as a viewer, I just have to shrug and not give a shit about any of them. This is true even of the victim, who has several chances to go home but wants to be cool and fit in. His fate is partly his own fault.