Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Robert Machoian
Starring: Clayne Crawford, Jordana Brewster, Michael
Raymond-James, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Prime time TV viewers know Clayne Crawford as the star of the
Lethal Weapon series, but for those of us more inclined
towards American indie cinema he's the breakout star of writer/director
Robert Machoian's
The Killing of Two Lovers. That movie saw Crawford play a man wrestling with the expectations of
being a man, forcing himself to adhere to a dated form of masculinity he
was ill-suited to. Reuniting with Machoian, Crawford plays a similar
figure in The Integrity of Joseph Chambers, though this time his target is of the animal rather than human
variety.
As the titular Joseph Chambers, we find Crawford rising early one
morning and shaving his face, leaving a mustache that makes him look
like a cast member of Tombstone. His wife Tess (Jordana Brewster) initially mocks his new look
but ultimately concedes that the face fuzz does indeed suit her handsome
husband. While Joseph can pull off a mustache and looks the part in the
fresh hunting clothes he's assembled, his nervous face betrays him.
Joseph has decided that the best way he can be a husband and father is
to provide for his family by hunting for food, should the world fall
apart. He intends to spend the day hunting, even though Tess insists
that as a relocated city boy he's ill-suited and should spend more time
with her father, a lifelong hunter.
Joseph is having none of it and heads into the woods with a pickup
truck and rifle borrowed from a friend who is as unconvinced as his
wife. He spends much of the morning walking around in a state of
boredom, making up a song about how he's "the mustache man" and trying
not to fall asleep. He carries his borrowed gun in awkward fashion and
makes more noise than a herd of elephants as he crunches his way through
the woods making "pew pew" gun noises. It seems the day is set o be a
write-off, but then he spots a deer in the distance. Startled by a noise
as he's taking aim at the animal, Joseph accidentally fires off a shot
in the wrong direction.
[Mild spoiler follows] It doesn't come
as a surprise but none of the film's marketing mentions the ultimate
destination of Joseph's stray bullet, so I've marked it as a spoiler.
It's hardly a shock when Joseph comes across the body of a man (Michael Raymond-James) with a fresh bullet hole in his torso. Joseph's initial response is
to flee back to his borrowed truck, where he curls up in a fetal
position and cries his eyes out. Then his survival instinct kicks in and
he decides to bury the body. Speaking out loud, he tries to rationalise
his act as that of shooting a trespasser on private property, but he
can't quite convince himself.
The rest of the movie sees Joseph wrestle with the consequences of his
actions as he flips back and forth between covering up his accident or
admitting to his mistake. It's largely a one-man show for Crawford, who
is just as convincing here as in
The Killing of Two Lovers as a man who has let societal
expectations lead him to tragedy. As with his previous film, Machoian
once again frames his human protagonist in a manner that often sees him
overwhelmed by an uncaring natural landscape. The sound design serves to
both externalise Joseph's psychological stress with its discordant
instrumentation and drown him out with the whoops and hollers of the
local wildlife. It adds an extra element of production value to what is
clearly a stark product of pandemic era filmmaking.
While Machoian and Crawford impress once again, there's a slightness to
Joseph Chambers that suggests a movie made under limited
conditions. You get the feeling that like so many filmmakers, the pair
felt they had to get out and make something while the world was locked
down. It's not the most original setup, and we've certainly seen more
exciting variations on this theme, but I can't think of another movie of
this sort that has devoted so much of its running time to simply
watching a man wrestle with the implications of his actions. Viewers'
mileage will vary, but Crawford is such a fascinating screen presence
that his tortured face should be enough to hold the attention of
most.
The Integrity of Joseph Chambers is on UK/ROI VOD and bluray from April 17th.