Metacritic Film

Fierce People

Starring Diane Lane, Anton Yelchin, Donald Sutherland, Chris Evans, Kristen Stewart, Paz de la Huerta, and Blu Mankuma

MPAA RATING: R for language, drug use, sexuality/nudity and some violence

Lions Gate Films
Drama
135 minutes | Color
USA / Canada
Released In Theaters September 7, 2007

When 16-year-old Finn is caught buying cocaine for his junkie but well intentioned mother Liz, his plans of spending the summer away from NYC with his anthropologist father studying the Ishkanani in the jungle are abruptly changed. In an attempt to get both of their lives back on track, Liz moves the two of them out to a cottage on the country estate of her sugar daddy, Mr. Osborne. Finn immediately makes his way into the 'tribe' of wealthy country clubbers that inhabit his new home. Soon Finn is dating Mr. Osborne’s granddaughter Maya and has found a best friend in her brother Bryce. Finn adjusts quickly to their life of fancy clothes, cars, horses, sex and drugs. Liz begins attending AA meetings and begins to establish herself as a loving mother working to correct her mistakes and win back Finn's love and trust. Unfortunately things begin to spiral out of control, and he begins to see that the wealth and friendships bestowed upon him come at a price. (Lions Gate)

WRITTEN BY
Dirk Wittenborn

DIRECTED BY
Griffin Dunne

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

54 / 100

Critic Reviews

75	ReelViews The film is worthwhile primarily for the fun, breezy first hour. After that, it's a case of watching to find out how things turn out.
75	New York Post Director Griffin Dunne's adaptation of Dirk Wittenborn's fiercely personal novel ambles pleasantly through coming-of-age movie territory, then takes a jarring Agatha Christie detour.
70	Variety Whenever Sutherland comes on scene, any inadequacies in the film's depiction of the well-to-do become irrelevant.
70	Village Voice Scott Foundas Whereas most of the injustices suffered by "Nanny's" nanny are of the skin-deep variety, the hopelessly reductive Fierce People ups the ante.
67	The Onion (A.V. Club) Staff (Not credited) Fierce People's first hour is dominated by brittle social satire, but in its third act, the film takes a jarring turn toward tremblingly sincere melodrama it can't pull off.
60	The New York Times When F. Scott Fitzgerald remarked that the rich “are different from you and me,” he might have been thinking of someone like the moody billionaire from Fierce People.
50	TV Guide Not even the always reliable Diane Lane can save this one.
50	New York Daily News What might have read as a dense allegory comparing the rituals of the super-rich with the tribal customs of the violent Ishkanani tribe in the Amazon becomes a tedious, over-ripe soap opera on screen.
50	Los Angeles Times Robert Abele Dunne and Wittenborn, who adapted his book, work too hard at stressing just how ruthless the unspoken standards of the stinking rich can be, leading to a story-pivoting act of brutality toward Finn that careens the movie into a tonal wilderness that it never recovers from.
50	Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson The idea that rich people are an alien tribe is just one of many that get lost in Wittenborn’s distracted script. Instead of exploring the concept, he throws out random incidents until he hits one that sends the film into a dark, grotesque spiral.
50	Seattle Post-Intelligencer Fierce People is no ordinary dud. This seedy soap opera is the most outlandish, campy romp through the mud since "Showgirls."
50	Washington Post When the tone goes from daffy to dour in the course of a harrowing plot point, the story becomes more forced than fierce.
50	Boston Globe The platitudes in this gratuitously sentimental movie are taken a lot more seriously than the people.
50	Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman Never recovers from a jarring and improbable act of ritualized violence that occurs halfway through the film.
25	San Francisco Chronicle Steve Winn Plays like a movie that some teenage boy cooked up in his chemistry lab. There are lots of potent things floating around in it - sexual initiation, drugs, fantasy-land wealth, brute violence, primitive rituals, Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland - but the mix just sits there without producing any notable reactions.

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