Paul Schrader's The Walker offers exactly what one
would expect from a "minor" Schrader picture: pleasantly
written dialogue, but little of the depth that has made
the filmmaker’s best work (i.e.: the writing for
Taxi Driver, the writing and direction for Auto
Focus) so great. Schrader definitely isn’t at the top
of his game here, but The Walker is so much better
than most of the other "political dramas" that have been
released this
year that I savored every bit of it as I watched. It is
the kind of film that may not resonate with the viewer in
terms of its literal content, but rather engages by
building a progressively affecting aura as it
moves.
Woody Harrelson
gives perhaps the best performance of his career as Carter
Page III, the son and grandson of wealthy and influential
politicians. Carter isn’t as agenda-minded as the
former men in his family, but his cocky swagger carries
just as much gravitas as theirs once did. He finds power
in Washington as a “walker,” an unpaid escort who locks
arms with the wives of important politicians at social
functions. Flamingly homosexual and undoubtedly
self-infatuated, Carter is always sure to make himself
seem more involved than he really is in the lives of those
around him .
Carter's
self-important attitude hits him especially hard when he
decides to conspire in a good 'ol Washington cover-up with one of his clients.
Said client is Lynn Lockner (Kristin Scott Thomas), who, at
the beginning of the film, is driven by Carter to see her
lobbyist lover, Robbie Kononsberg (Steven Hartley), only
to find him murdered in the middle of his home. Fearing
how the press might react to the revelation that she had
been cheating on her husband (Willem Dafoe)—let alone
cheating on her husband with a lobbyist—Lynn flees the
scene and allows Carter to claim to have been the one to
have found Robbie dead.
What unravels
following The Walker’s inciting incident isn’t what
one would expect from the typical political-thriller,
mainly because Schrader doesn’t allow it to be. The
accomplished writer/director is much less concerned with
external plot than he is with capturing a distinctive
atmosphere. He lavishly indulges in the vernacular and
mannerisms exhibited by the Washington-elite that Carter
and Lynn entertain. The plot-related consequences of
Carter and Lynn’s cover-up enter the picture sparingly,
although Schrader constantly finds himself fascinated by
the more-interesting emotional outcomes of the act. Aiding
this style immensely is Harrelson, who downright
disappears into the lead role. Alongside him in the cast
are the equally-valuable Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beaty, Lily
Tomlin, and Moritz Bliebtreu.
Despite the
command that Schrader exhibits over The Walker, I would be lying if I claimed
that I didn’t think
that the movie got a little boring in the second act. I
made a point of mentioning my admiration for the film’s
sense of atmosphere, but it should also be noted that
Schrader’s concentration on this sometimes causes the
picture to feel slightly monotone on the whole. I don’t
mean to question Schrader’s patient advancement of the
plot at hand—he accomplishes this in stunning form—but I
do think he could’ve cut certain bulky scenes in the
film’s middle-section. While it is true that The Walker
is largely about expressing the inconsequence of political
high-society through inconsequential dialogue, Schrader
still
could’ve cut a few unnecessary conversations and ended up with a
product of identical meaning.
Even so, it’s rather hard to fault the film, which achieves
what it sets out to achieve in a usually-stunning fashion.
I can’t say that The Walker is one of my absolute
favorite pictures of the year, but I admire the heck out
of the vast majority of its contents.