The Square

First Hit:  One of those films which got worse the more it went on.

With my senses heightened by the very intense and shocking film short that previewed before the main attraction, I was sorely disappointed by the uninteresting main feature, The Square. 

A film requires me to care about or engage with one or more characters so that I connect and watch it with engaged interest. The Square did nothing to invite me in. Why should I have cared about Raymond Yale (played by David Roberts)?

The perpetually frowning man doesn’t speak to his wife, is having an affair, cuts construction preference deals behind the owner’s back, and treats his workers rather badly.

The film makers ask us to care because he is having an affair with Carla Smith (played by Claire van der Boom) who is married to a mullet haired tow truck driver named Greg “Smithy” Smith (played by Anthony Hays) who is hiding ill begotten money in their house. Are we supposed to feel sorry for her? She doesn’t have any kids, has a job and could leave anytime she wants.

But no, she only wants to leave her husband for another man who ignores his current wife. Are we supposed to like Smithy? No, because Smithy invites sorted friends over to the house (one who wants to have an affair with Carla), and then orders Carla around like she is his slave (“get some food up the boys are hungry"). 

Do we have any history about either marriage? No, nothing. We’re supposed to take it on face value that we are to care about Carla and Raymond because they have great front seat car sex. As they make plans to run away together, they end up accidentally killing Smithy’s mother in a arson attempt to burn Greg and Carla’s house down to hide the fact that Carla is stealing the hidden money. 

As the film moves on, the accidental killing causes a chain of events which result in more hurt people, deaths and other stupid un-thought out actions. Sitting in the theater, I realized that writer and actor Joel Edgerton and director Nash Edgerton forgot a cardinal rule of filmmaking; get the audience to buy into the premise at the beginning of the film.

Roberts wasn’t given a chance to be effective because the script was restricted. Boom was better in her role but I found it difficult to get why she was married to Smith (Hays) in the first place. Hays was good as a jerk and a demanding chauvinistic Australian husband. Joel Edgerton wrote an ineffective script and Nash Edgerton's direction didn’t make it any better.

Overall:  This film was generally a waste of time, mostly predictable and poorly conceived and executed.

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