For his directorial debut, the British actor Tim Roth (The Legend of 1900, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) has chosen a most disturbing subject: incest. And he presents an unflinching portrait of it. This film isn't easy to watch; uncompromising in its depiction of child abuse, it demands from its audience more than many people may wish to give.
Based on the controversial 1989 novel by the British writer Alexander Stuart, The War Zone concerns an outwardly normal, middle-class family that has just moved from London to the countryside. The central character is fifteen-year-old Tom (newcomer Freddie Cunliffe), a pimply-faced adolescent who, separated from his friends, ends up spending most of his time with his older sister Jessie (Lara Belmont, also making her acting debut). Mum and Dad -- they are referred to in no other way -- seem like typical, devoted parents. Dad (Ray Winstone) evinces real interest in his kids' welfare. Mum, a genial, earthy type, is awaiting the arrival of her third child.
But outward signs can be deceiving. One day Tom witnesses a disturbing sight through the window: his father abusing his sister. (What he sees is not revealed to the audience.) He confronts his sister, who denies that anything untoward has happened between herself and her father. As Tom witnesses further abuse, he becomes more sullen and depressed. He continually presses his sister to put a halt to the activities, threatening to expose what is going on. Jessie finally lets on to the terrible toll her father's monstrous actions have taken on her.
Revealing too much of a film's plot in a review isn't fair, but in this case the subject matter is so horrifying, and its presentation onscreen so straightforward, and at times graphic, that prospective viewers should be alerted. This is not a film for the weak at heart. Admirers of the picture will label it courageous and powerful, and perhaps it is. Certainly it is unsettling. That it is so well acted, especially by Belmont and Winstone in the film's thorniest roles, makes it even more difficult to watch.
The movie unfolds with the gravity of Greek drama. Interestingly Roth and his cinematographer, Seamus McGarvey (who did such a lovely job on The Winter Guest last year), decided against a gritty documentary look and feel (the subject matter was oppressive enough on its own) and opted for a kind of physical expansiveness. The result is a bleak, beautiful film.
If the movie has a message, it is that even the most benign exterior can hide a terrible truth. Tom and Jessie's family exhibits no discernible signs of dysfunction; if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone. The film never explores the reasons behind the father's sickness. In fact Dad denies his guilt throughout.
"I've played wife beaters before, but nothing prepared me for the feeling of playing a child abuser," says Winstone, who also made a tremendous impression in actor Gary Oldham's directing debut, Nil by Mouth. "It made me question how far I want to go as an actor." Viewers should ask themselves how far they wish to go before entering The War Zone's harrowing territory.
