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The Statement

Starring: Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Northam, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling
Director: Norman Jewison

Reviewed by P. Joshua Laskey

By twin devices of very little dialog and grainy, black and white footage reminiscent of World War II newsreels, The Statement piqued my interest from it first moments. Director Norman Jewison laid out the exposition superbly and, by capturing my attention with rapid cuts and
jarring camera movements during the opening sequence, set me up to trust his judgment as I found myself thrown headlong into action I could not fully comprehend without more information. As it turned out, my trust was not misplaced for said information was not long in coming. After shifting to color and slowing the pace markedly, Jewison began a slow striptease for the amateur sleuth when The Statement revealed itself not as period piece
but rather a modern, legalistic mystery bent on ferreting out the truth of the past.

Being hooked early by the showmanship Jewison had displayed in his opening, I forgave the slower parts of the seemingly deliberate revelation in exchange for bits of information that I believed would prove meaningful later. From each shot of the unfolding story, I assiduously remembered faces and, in my mind, catalogued repeated words and phrases like the determined sleuth Jewison seemed to demand. As the clues accumulated, my suspicions, along with my anticipation, grew: I could not wait to crack the case. I assumed, however, that, since I was not a detective with an open ended case file but rather an audience member being guided by a storyteller who had already grabbed me, I was in no danger of disappointment.

With my expectations on the rise abetted by the forced focus of the screen (so that my personal factgathering was limited by the Jewison’s prerogatives) and my own assumptions, I was unprepared for the abruptness with which the story came to a screeching halt. Instead of finding the resolution I so eagerly craved and which I felt had been tacitly promised me, I was left with very specific questions unanswered and a lingering
feeling of betrayal. Because the overt plot suddenly concluded onscreen, character relationships went underexplored while the more subtle underplots woven into the screenplay fared no better. The Statement’s final scene, a “culmination” of the plots, seemed tacked on and rather tacky considering the methodical setup Jewison had given it. The curtailing of what seemed the story’s natural flow also left stranded, in my mind, many of the details I had so faithfully catalogued.

Perhaps because The Statement was based on a novel, the story did not fare will when it met the unique medium of the screen. A book’s promise on the page is not always realized in cinema because of practical considerations not incumbent on the imagination, the constraints of time and money, and the acceptance of conventional wisdom that an audience will not tolerate length without a pace difficult to maintain in dialog and shot selection. Overall, The Statement wasted both Jewison’s filmically intriguing setup, which merits applause, and Michael Caine’s attractively spare performance to leave me unsatisfied. Perhaps if it had stuck to one unadulterated plot in tandem with its strong justice theme instead of diluting the story with trite subplots, I would have given The Statement more than the one star I do.

Rating:

(1 out of 4 stars)