Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Ethan Berger
Starring: Alex Wolff, Lewis Pullman, Halle Bailey, Austin Abrams, Angus Cloud,
Scoot McNairy, John Malkovich, Bo Mitchell, Denise Richards
The American collegiate traditions of sororities and fraternities have
fuelled many a motion picture. Strangely, American cinema has largely
taken a very different approach to each. Movies about sororities have
overwhelmingly tended to fall into the horror and thriller genres,
focussing on mean girl archetypes, while those centred on fraternities
are usually comedies, populated by horny, hard-drinking goofballs.
Director Ethan Berger's The Line is a rare college
thriller set not in a sorority but fraternity house.
Tom Backster (Alex Wolff) is a sophomore at a Southern
university who has risen through the ranks of the institution's top
fraternity, KNA, despite his relatively humble roots. While his
fraternity brothers are the sons of politicians and tycoons, Tom comes
from a modest single parent home. He seems to have been accepted into
KNA largely due to his friendship with Mitch Miller (Bo Mitchell), an obnoxious oaf whose father (John Malkovich) wields
considerable power (enough to land a trophy wife played by
Denise Richards).
Tom is taken under the wing of KNA president Todd (Lewis Pullman
in a role far from the nerdy types he's become known for), who puts him
in charge of pledge week when he has to leave town. This means Tom is
required to oversee the various hazing rituals that will decide which
freshmen are accepted into KNA. Tom's loyalty to Mitch is tested when
the latter makes an enemy of Gettys (Austin Abrams), a cocky
freshman who seems to revel in pushing Mitch's buttons.
As the loathsome but ultimately pathetic Mitch, Mitchell delivers a
gripping performance. Initially he channels John Belushi with his
drunken frat boy antics, but increasingly he comes to resemble Vincent
D'Onofrio's troubled grunt in Full Metal Jacket, right down to adopting that memorably creepy thousand yard stare.
There are other allusions to Kubrick's film, from the drill
instructor-esque bullying of the freshmen, who are even made to shave
their heads, to how Tom echoes the character played by Matthew Modine in
adopting a persona just to get through the experience. Wolff is very
good in the role, and a quick glance at his Wikipedia page tells you his
own background isn't too dissimilar from the sort of privileged young
men who populate elite fraternities like KNA. But with his Jewish
background, he's not exactly a poster boy for the Aryan race, which
makes it a little difficult to buy him being accepted into this WASPy
institution, particularly when we see freshmen being rejected for being
"too dark."
If Wolff's casting is a case of colourblind ignorance, the same can't
said for African-American actress Halle Bailey. She plays
Annabelle, a fellow student Tom falls for. Bailey is under-served as a
character who seems to exist solely to add a layer of empathy to Tom.
Hey, if he's willing to date a black girl he can't be all bad, right?
Yikes! Annabelle is initially portrayed as being too clever to fall for
Tom's practiced charms, not to mention repelled by his fraternity, so
it's difficult to believe their subsequent relationship.
For the most part, The Line is a drama about the lengths
people will go to in order to fit in with those they really have little
in common with. And thanks largely to some captivating performances, it
works as such. Late on however, the movie enters thriller territory and
begins to flounder. What screenwriting gurus call the inciting incident
occurs so late in the narrative that the film never really has the space
to reconcile with its implications. It does however result in a final
scene that features a quietly devastating piece of underplayed acting
from Mitchell, who is the real graduate of note from this particular
class.
