Frailty (2001)
Destroying demons is a good thing. Killing people is bad.
THE SUMMARY: A widower father receives a divine command to exterminate earthly demons, but his elder son betrays him, so his younger son waits until he’s older to kill his brother and then pretend to be his brother to get away with it. That sounds a little confusing, but it actually comes together pretty well in the end. Frailty hits on big philosophical questions, and ends on a twist, even if not quite as forcefully as the Godly ax it depicts.
FROM MOVIE-PICKER DEEPERKING: Themes of faith and family, packaged into a thriller. Familiar stars in a nearly forgotten film with some unforgettable scenes. This film seems more prescient now and makes you question the presence of demons in the world.
JAMIE AND JEANNE’S AI FACESWAP ART:
No, we’re not a couple. She’s my mom.
Okay, now we’re a couple, I guess. I weirdly look like Deputy Rick Grimes here.
... this actually kinda happened.
THE BEST:
What is slaying demons and what is murder?: Fundamentally, Frailty explores the question: what right do we as men have to exterminate the demons of this world? Are there evils that deserve extermination? Of course. But are we men perfect in our identification of them? Or course not. So we’re stuck with comparatively lame systems like due process in a court of law before a jury of your peers, to mitigate those mistakes, instead of the much more entertaining execution by ax without all those boring formalities.
The difference is, at least as far as we’re currently aware, none of us have the magic, God-given demon-identification kit that Fenton and Adam’s dad does in the movie. If such a thing actually existed, then no - this isn’t a movie about murders at all. It’s a movie about justice. After all, what’s the difference between murder and a justified execution? The certain assignment of guilt.
Who wins between family and God?: In a secondary question to consider, Frailty explores the boundaries of family loyalty. To what extent should we remain loyal to and protect our family members? Alternatively, how much room should we allow them to deviate from moral principles before we abandon them?
The phrase is ‘God, family, country’ for a reason - because it’s in that order. Family loyalty matters above almost everything else, because for the sake of yourself and society, intact families are a key component for prosperity.
But, there are things family members can do to dissolve that bond. They can murder. They can steal. They can commit various other crimes that violate basic moral concepts and are, in other words, contrary to God.
Because family bond is so important, it’s likewise important to maintain it unless serious breaches like those are committed, but if they are, the bond can be severed. Indeed must be severed, because moral truth commands it, exactly as it does in this story.
Consider the plot: Fenton betrays and kills his father because he believes his father has betrayed a ‘God’ he doesn’t even believe in, or at least the moral rules of the world: don’t murder. Fenton’s father won’t betray his son, even though he’s received a divine command to do it.
The lesson? Both Fenton and his father got the order wrong. His father put family before God, and Fenton rejected God altogether, and they both paid their lives for it. Adam is the only one who got it right, and he survived to enjoy God’s protection and create a family of his own.
Thank you for the tasteful violence: For a movie about a sequence of ax murders (or justified executions, debatably), it’s actually very watchable. Frailty doesn’t throw a lot of blood and gore at you, despite its gruesome premise. I appreciate a movie that can make me tense from violence it doesn’t even show. Well done.
A nice twist, but: I’ll always appreciate a movie that leads you one direction only to show you something completely different in the end, as Frailty does. We hear the story through ‘Fenton’s’ narration, only to realize he’s actually Adam, who had to kill Fenton by God’s command, and set it up to look like a suicide to get away with it. Cool story (I’m not even being sarcastic - it’s actually a cool story), but as I’ll get to, it’s not entirely shocking when it hits.
A vision from God.
Tasteful, for a bunch of ax murders.
THE WORST:
Somewhat unclear/open in its message: When movies take on big moral themes as Frailty does, some clarity in the intended message is appreciated. While it seems to me Frailty intends to show the viewer that Fenton and Adam’s father was right all along, by virtue of the bad actions the demons had actually committed, and by virtue of Adam getting protected as God said he would, but it’s not entirely clear. Is Adam a virtuous man who obeys God, or is he just a crazy serial killer who’s skilled in getting away with it? Frailty leaves that somewhat up to interpretation. As I write every time I encounter this scenario, don’t make me write the story for you. Write a good story for me - that’s why I pay for the movie ticket or rental.
In fairness, Frailty does that most of the way. I’d just like a little more clarity in the end about good and evil, and not be left wondering if the movie intends to tell me that divine commandment is actually just the misunderstanding of a crazy person.
What did the third demon do?: After Fenton and Adam’s father kills the first two demons, we get confirmation of their demonic behavior beyond his magical touch: the nurse killed hospital patients and stole from them, and the old man was a child rapist. But what about the third guy, the guy they had captive who Fenton was assigned to kill before he killed his dad? He seemed pretty demonic in his treatment of his wife, but rude words aren’t sufficient for a death sentence.
The twist wasn’t that twisted: The ‘revelation’ that ‘Fenton’ is actually Adam is fairly predictable. My wife and I had it figured out well ahead of time without reading any plot description beforehand. The tells are there: Fenton is a red-headed boy. Adam is blonde. Adult ‘Fenton’ is not red-headed. God identifies Fenton as a demon, not Adam, and God was proven correct in his prior demon identifications. Fenton is a much more emotional, erratic character in the 1979 timeline, unlike the calm, stoic character talking to FBI agent Doyle in the present timeline. And it makes sense that Adam had to kill Fenton, because it’s foretold in the story itself. Their father was supposed to do it, but he couldn’t, so Adam had to.
I’m not saying it’s bad writing - I actually like how the ending ties up all the loose ends. I’m just saying you could see that twist unraveling well ahead of time, so it didn’t hit with the surprise it may have been intended to.
The twist.
Okay, but what did he do though?
THE RATING: 4/5 Wickies. Big moral questions and a tricky plot make for an entertaining view with something to think about afterward. It’s neither the greatest moral exploration nor the most surprising twist I’ve ever seen, but it’s worth the watch.
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NEXT WEEK: Watership Down (1978)
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