Joe - Just your ‘average Joe’ of a movie

Nicholas Cage.  Once a bankable star, has found himself falling on the wrong side of some filmic choices of late.  Or, to put it another way, he’s made some right turkeys recently.  However, I’m pleased to say that ‘Joe’ isn’t one of them.  Okay, it’s not great, but it’s better than most of his stuff.

Unsurprisingly, Cage plays the titular ‘Joe’ – the leader of a lumbering crew in America.  He’s doing his best to make an honest buck, but things don’t always go his way.  There are plenty of people who seem to want to either bust his skull in over debts, or just shoot him dead.  And, if that wasn’t enough to be getting on with, he hires a young lad with an alcoholic father – two people who complicate his life yet further.

I guess the first thing you need to know if you’re contemplating watching Joe is that it is a drama.  A straight drama through and through.  There’s no action, adventure or even light comic relief.  It’s a pretty bleak affair.  You’ll need to be in the mood for something very ‘character-driven’ to appreciate this.  But Cage holds it together and we see shades of the reason he was so bankable once upon a time.  It’s his baby, but credit has to go to the young lad who plays his new crewmember.

It’s a long film, clocking in at nearly two hours, so you really need to be in the mood for something this ‘no thrills.’ I would say it was ‘fun,’ only it wasn’t.  But then it’s not supposed to be.  It’s supposed to be a dark and depressing drama.  And for that it succeeds.  You just need to make sure you’re in the mood for something like this. ‘The Rock’ it is not.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights