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Textual Healing

Those of you who have read my review of the recent Cormac McCarthy adaptation, "The Road", know how I feel about the term "post-apocalyptic". But here we go again. "The Book of Eli" takes place in a (sigh) post-apocalyptic wasteland. All we know is that it's been thirty years since "the war" when "the sky was ripped open" and there was "the flash". Is it me or do these dystopic visions of the future give screenwriters an excuse to be lazy? What happened to civilization? We'll never find out. Are the survivors plagued by radiation? Fall-out? Who knows. While details would be nice, the script by newcomer Gary Whitta (former editor of "PC Gamer" magazine) adheres to the "less is more" philosophy. In this case, less ends up being exactly that.

A lone traveler (Denzel Washington) walks the barren landscape, filmed by The Hughes Brothers with the type of super-washed-out filmstock that has become de rigueur in this genre. We only know he's headed west. After catching a stray cat for dinner, he sits in an abandoned house and voraciously reads from the tome of the title - an old leather-bound volume with a distinct cross-type symbol on the cover. The next day, he is approached on the road by the type of roving gangs that have been plaguing these films since "The Road Warrior". The traveler dispatches his foes with swift, merciless (and kinda cool) violence. Who is this man and what's with the book? If that question is enough to keep you interested for two hours, you're all set.

One day, the traveler happens upon a town - think "Bartertown" from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", but with Gary Oldman instead of Tina Turner. It turns out Mr. Oldman's character is obsessed with finding (guess what) a book. And, yes, it's that same book in the traveler's possession.

There's nothing inherently wrong with this setup, and The Hughes Brothers are well-versed in creating atmosphere and building tension. But the more Mr. Whitta's script begins to show its hand, the less "The Book of Eli" holds together - first, when the book is revealed and then finally during the climactic sequence.

Mr. Washington, of course, is eminently charismatic, even under a scraggly beard and dusty overcoat. That the film is as watchable as it is can be attributed almost entirely to him. Of course, there's Mr. Oldman as well. No one does unhealthy obsession quite like him. In other fun casting news, Jennifer Beals is on-hand as Mr. Oldman's blind concubine (teehee), and Tom Waits puts in an appearance as, well, the type of character Tom Waits is want to play. Mila Kunis, meanwhile, who plays Ms. Beals' daughter, has begun to look like a mini-Angelina Jolie (she still acts like Mila Kunis, however).

It all builds up to a Shyamalan-worthy ending that's not so much a twist as a winking "cool, right?" The Hughes Brothers approach the denouement as though striving for a "Planet of the Apes"-level "You maniacs! You blew it up!" But instead the film has the feel of a stand-up comic waiting for the audience to react to the punchline. We get the joke, and we've heard it before.