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THE TIGER RISING
Director: Ray Giarratana Cast: Christian Convery, Madalen Mills, Queen Latifah, Sam Trammell, Dennis Quaid, Katharine McPhee MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:42 Release Date: 1/21/22 (limited); 2/8/22 (digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 20, 2022 There are times that a story keeps what it's really about at too much of a distance, and that's the case with The Tiger Rising. Here is the tale of a young boy, whose mother recently died, as he tries to comprehend and accept grief. There are a couple touching moments, which cut to the core of this story's purpose, in writer/director Ray Giarratana's adaptation of Kate DiCamillo's book. Mostly, though, the story's simple purpose and potential promise are overburdened and overwhelmed by too many elements that feel like distractions. The tiger of the title is the most obvious one, for sure. It's introduced early in the story, as 10-year-old Rob (Christian Convery) travels into the woods one day before school. There, locked up in a cage, is the wild cat. Our narrator, a grown-up version of Rob's soon-to-be friend Sistine (Madalen Mills), explains something about the tiger being a metaphor for all of the thoughts and feelings she and Rob had kept locked up inside, and as soon as the idea that those feelings need to be freed, a little chill of dread fills the air. Yes, the tiger here is a bit of a confused metaphor, but it's also a tiger. The movie's mix of imagination and realism doesn't quite cover up the fact that the kids' eventual plan to free their emotions by, you know, letting the tiger loose is a terrible, dangerous, and almost certainly fatal one. Before all of that, though, we get a sense of Rob's life. He's currently living in a motel room, in some small town in Florida, with his father Robert (Sam Trammell), who works for the establishment's owner Beauchamp (Dennis Quaid). Dad refuses to talk about his wife and Rob's mom (played by Katharine McPhee), who appears in flashbacks triggered by all sorts of inconsequential things in Rob's day-to-day life. Robert keeps busy, and Rob has developed a rash that covers his legs. The kid is sent home from school until the condition is cleared up, but the motel's wise maid Willie May (Queen Latifah) believes the rash is all of Rob's grief's trapped in his legs. He needs to let it go to his heart, where it belongs. When we're talking about the effective and affecting scenes in this movie, those are the easy, relaxed, and straightforward ones between Rob, who finally has someone to talk to, and Willie May, who offers compassion and good advice. Otherwise, a lot within this story seems to exist to keep such honesty at bay. Rob, for example, has a somewhat active imagination, leading him to envision his no-nonsense friend Sistine roaring like a tiger to chase away bullies, the actual tiger chasing away his own bullies, and his whittled figurines briefly coming to life (A wood statue of Sistine gives him attitude, and one of a bird hovers around him). The gimmick adds a layer of fantasy to the tale, which only serves to keep reality at bay—a necessity when it comes to the tiger but a deflection when it comes to everything else. Eventually, Beauchamp, who received the animal as debt repayment, enlists Rob to feed the tiger, which is a discomforting case of blatant child endangerment, and gives the kid the keys to the tiger's cage for that job, which is more irresponsible and perilous than even the doltish, entitled, and generally awful Beauchamp seems capable of being. Rob takes Sistine to see the tiger, and as they feed it and give it a view of the stars and debate whether or not to set it loose into the woods, every scene possesses an uncomfortable level of unnecessary risk (This is only within the movie, at least, since Giarratana shoots the scenes with the animal in such a way that it's clear no one on screen was actually interacting with the tiger). If the tiger is real or a metaphor or both, it's all just a bit too much, especially in the third act, when the kids' plan forms—and, no matter what they end up doing, it seems like a terrible idea (Willie May apparently loses her concern for the kids and her general wisdom, just so the climax can happen, and the growing conflict between Robert and Beauchamp suddenly erupts for the coincidental payoff). Basically, the tiger of The Tiger Rising is uneasily real, an awkwardly indecisive metaphor, and reflective of the movie's major problem: It goes out of its way to deflect from real emotions and down-to-earth realism. Copyright © 2022 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for thematic elements, language and brief violence)
