Austere and heavy going, but grimly rewarding, this is probably
Schrader's strongest film of the Nineties. Coburn and Nolte do
outstanding, complementary work as the grizzled, monstrous
alcoholic father and the son becoming more and more like him. Like the
equally wintry The Sweet Hereafter (also from a Russell Banks novel)
it's a bit of a downer, but it offers a similar take on the inescapable
nature of family neuroses, while adding typically Schraderish
commentary on the crisis of the modern American male.
