Bruiser (George Romero, 2000)
I remember being annoyed by the endless speculation over
whether or not Bruiser, George
Romero’s first film since 1993’s surprisingly solid adaptation of Stephen
King’s The Dark Half, would get a
domestic theatrical release. It never did secure one, and instead premiered on
home video late last year. Unfortunately, there’s not much of a case to be
made that Romero was grievously wronged by the system. Bruiser is the weakest film in the director’s oeuvre, and, despite
a promising start, it fits right in with the other cheap thrillers that have
debuted on DVD.
Romero’s movies have never been less than topical, and Bruiser,
at least for its first reel, is no exception. Things begin promisingly as
we’re introduced to Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng), a seemingly successful
young man who works at a fashion magazine called “Bruiser”. Romero uses his
thankless existence to paint a picture of the misery caused when one tries to
run the rat race. With a cheating, materialistic wife, a boss who endlessly
demeans him, and a best friend who is swindling him out of his hard earned
money, Henry is fit to be tied. The problem is that he chooses to internalize
his anger, and as a result he slowly begins to unravel. Romero stages his brief,
gory revenge fantasies spurned by the smallest inconsideration. When Henry
imagines himself violently assaulting a woman who shuffles past him to board a
train, the film interestingly taps into a common psychosis, caused by the petty
frustrations we face day in and day out.
Alas, as Henry’s problems escalate, and his identity is
further compromised by his inaction, Bruiser
becomes a rather subpar slasher film. Henry, convinced that his face has been
replaced with a blank mask, loses his grip on reality, and begins extracting
bloody revenge on all those who have wronged him in an attempt to redefine
himself. At this point, Bruiser loses
what imagination it has had and simultaneously stops resembling the lives of the
audience. There’s little satisfaction in watching his battering of his wife or
boss, simply because the film lacks both villainous panache to make us root for
Henry and sympathetic victims that would allow us to be appalled by his actions.
The dreary hour in which Henry terrorizes those around him is dispiriting
whenever you consider that its director filmed The Night of the Living Dead, which might well be the scariest
horror film of all time. In the five years since Bruiser’s completion, Romero’s launched production on Land
of the Dead, which will see him revisiting that famed franchise. Here’s to
hoping Bruiser was a mere misstep before Romero’s return to form.
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03-04-05
Jeremy Heilman
