Affliction is a bleak film, a study of cyclical violence and psychological disintegration. If you're looking for something to cheer you up, this is one to avoid until you're in the right mood. But it is a very good film, directed by the accomplished Paul Schrader and based on a novel by Russell Banks, which lives up to its considerable critical reputation. It's a crime film, with a suspicious death and a troubled cop at its heart, but it's really a drama about human nature, not a mystery in the conventional sense.
Nick Nolte plays Wade Whitehouse, a cop in a small town in New Hampshire. He is divorced and his wife Lillian (Mary Beth Hurt, who was married to Schrader) has custody of their daughter Jill, to whom he is devoted, although their relationship isn't easy. He's now involved with Margie (Sissy Spacek, who is very sympathetic as she tries to cope with a disturbed lover) and he has a brother Rolfe (Willem Dafoe) who provides crucial information in a voiceover at the end of the film - a device that would usually seem like a real cop-out, but which works quite well here, except for the fact that one crucial event, a killing, would surely have worked better if we were shown it, with some build-up, rather than in effect being told about it.
The death of Wade's mother means that his alcoholic and violent father Glen (James Coburn, who won an Oscar for his performance) comes to live with him and Margie. Meanwhile, Wade becomes fixated with the death of a crooked businessman called Twombley, who was shot while on a hunting trip with a local guide called Jack (Jim True). Jack claims the death was an accident, but Wade isn't convinced.
Wade's behaviour as he unravels becomes increasingly illogical and scary for those around him, and the final scenes are upsetting. I've seen this film described as a 'neo-noir crime drama', but that really doesn't convey the flavour of a movie that deals thoughtfully with the question of violent impulses. I've always had a dread of violence, and perhaps that's why I find it fascinating. So often violent movies are crass, but Affliction, although a mostly understated, slow-burn of a film, is compelling.
