Stone

Delivery Time: 7 to 15 Working Days Format: DVD

Academy Award® winner Robert De Niro and Oscar® nominee Edward Norton deliver powerful performances as a seasoned corrections official and a scheming inmate whose lives become dangerously intertwined in this “gritty and engrossing thriller” (Steve O’Brien, WCBS-FM). Jack Mabry (De Niro), a parole officer days away from retirement, is asked to review the case of Gerald “Stone” Creeson (Norton), in prison for arson. Now eligible for early release, Stone needs to convince Jack he has reformed, but his attempts to influence the older man’s decision with his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) have profound and unexpected effects on them both. This tale of passion, betrayal and corruption skillfully weaves together the parallel journeys of two men grappling with dark impulses, as the line between lawman and lawbreaker becomes precariously thin.
Edward Norton is always fascinating to watch--something slippery always lingers behind his eyes. In Stone, Norton plays a convicted arsonist nicknamed Stone who's desperate to persuade his parole officer, Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro), to argue for his early release--so desperate that he asks his wife, Lucetta (Milla Jovovich, The Fifth Element), to seduce Mabry. But while these machinations play out, Stone starts having a spiritual awakening … or is this another attempt at manipulation? Director John Curran and Norton worked together previously on The Painted Veil, and they clearly have a rapport: Norton's performance is fluid and sinuous, working its way into Mabry's consciousness and, potentially, the audience's. De Niro is, of course, solid, though he projects such a steely will that it's difficult to accept him as a man who succumbs to base appetites. Writer Angus MacLachlan wrote the luminous Junebug; while Stone doesn't manage the same rich humanity--despite the excellent acting by all involved, the story feels cramped and schematic--there are strong passages. But fundamentally, it's Norton who makes the movie worth watching; even the scenes he's not in feel like they're about him, how his influence ripples out into the people around him. --Bret Fetzer