Just as the opening credits of "Vertigo" sucked us toward an iris and beyond, into the haunting, kaleidoscopic depths of twisting mind patterns, "Frailty's" credits draw us to the swirls of a fingerprint.
Drifting by are headlines addressing God's Hand, a serial killer in East Texas.
On a dark and stormy night, a 30-something fellow named Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) arrives unannounced at FBI headquarters in Dallas to tell Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) that the case can be closed.
It seems Meiks' brother, the serial killer, killed himself just yesterday.
Until 1979, the Meiks family had been so happy.
Although their mother had died in childbirth, Adam (Jeremy Sumpter), who is about 8 in flashbacks, and brother Fenton (Matt O'Leary), who is about 11, live with their loving widower-father (Bill Paxton) as contentedly as Jem and Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Their father awakens them one night to describe a spiritual vision that has encouraged him to right a few of the world's wrongs. He has a mandate for divine vigilantism against demons whose identities and crimes he'll presumably learn through inspiration.
Although nothing else in Dad's behavior seems out of the ordinary, Fenton suspects the father might be having a breakdown. The boy is seriously apprehensive.
The younger and more impressionable Adam, though, is enthralled by the chance to be Dad's acolyte in God's work. Adam clings to belief in his father's righteousness the way a child hangs onto Santa Claus one final year.
The battle lines aren't drawn until late one night, after missing dinner, Dad brings home his first "demon," who looks awfully like a terrified woman with blackened eyes, bound in duct tape.
From here, the nightmarish worlds of "The Shining," "Night of the Hunter," "Silence of the Lambs" and "God Told Me To" converge in contemporary Gothic, where the days gleam and the nights darken into dread.
Fenton's eyes are the ideal vessel for the story because unlike, say, a battered wife or girlfriend, he has a lifelong relationship with his father that makes him at once loyal, dependent and terrified.
Brent Hanley's screenplay smartly deprives Fenton of one option — the Meiks have no other relatives — and toys with another, a visit by Sheriff Smalls (Luke Askew).
Paxton, doubling as director for the first time, coaxes a nicely measured performance from O'Leary, who is conflicted to the point of being immobilized and yet enlisting our empathy by verging on the point of action.
It's a tantalizing setup, spiked by Brian Tyler's eerie score, but one that engenders its share of afterthoughts.
Even in a town as seemingly closed off as Thurman, Texas, we have to wonder that neither boy has a single confidant. They are, after all, intelligent, personable, picture-perfect boys who would attract friends.
Except once, Paxton avoids graphic violence, opting for images the imagination supplies.
But he can't quite keep out of our heads' curiosity about the apparent lack of investigations, news accounts and chance intrusions and ultimately at least a hint about Dad's psychosis.
The fact you can't help anticipating some twists correctly tells you that "Frailty" is rooted more in the conventions of yarn-spinning mysteries than in reality.
But it also will plaster you to your seat, strenuously trying to send telepathic messages to Fenton and reading each frame of McConaughey's performance for nuances the script conceals.
You just naturally afterwards want to enjoy taking it apart.
| 'Frailty' |
Director: Bill Paxton
Stars: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Matt O'Leary
MPAA Rating: R, for violence and some language
