''Fierce People'' is a 2005

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

adapted by Dirk Wittenborn from his 2002 novel of the same name. Directed by

Griffin Dunne Thomas Griffin Dunne (; born June 8, 1955) is an American actor, film producer, and film director. Dunne studied acting at Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. He is kn ...

, it starred

Diane Lane Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film '' A Little Romance''. The two films that could have catapulted her to st ...

Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films '' Citizen X'' (1995) a ...

, Anton Yelchin,

Kristen Stewart Kristen Jaymes Stewart (born April 9, 1990) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2012, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Aca ...

, and Chris Evans. The film explores many facets of family and societal dysfunction, including drug abuse, mental illness, and rape.

Plot

Trapped in his drug-dependent mother's apartment, 16-year-old Finn Earl wants nothing more than to escape

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He wants to spend the summer in

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studying the Ishkanani Indians (known as the " Fierce People") with his anthropologist father whom he's never met. Finn's plan changes after he is arrested when he buys drugs for his mother, Lower East Side Liz, who works as a

massage therapist Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In Eu ...

. Determined to get their lives back on track, Liz moves the two of them into a guesthouse for the summer on the country estate of her ex-client, the aging billionaire, Ogden C. Osbourne. In Osbourne's world of privilege and power, Finn and Liz encounter the super rich, a tribe portrayed as fiercer and more mysterious than anything the teenager might find in the South American jungle. While Liz battles her substance abuse and struggles to win back her son's love and trust, Finn falls in love with Osbourne's granddaughter, Maya Langley. He befriends her older brother, Bryce Langley; and wins the favor of Osbourne. When rape and violence ends Finn's acceptance within the Osbourne clan, the promises of this world quickly sour. Both Finn and Liz, caught in a harrowing struggle for their dignity, discover that membership in a group comes at a steep price.

Cast

Production

The inspiration for the novel on which the film is based is author Dirk Wittenborn’s experiences growing up in a modest household and feeling like an outsider among the super rich in an upper-crust New Jersey enclave. Portions of the film were shot on location in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

at Hatley Castle.

Reception

Box office

The film first premiered at the

Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was fo ...

on April 24, 2005. It later received a limited release in 2007 and grossed $85,410 at the box office in the US.

Critical response

''Fierce People'' earned negative reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 24% based on reviews from 45 critics. The site's consensus states, "''Fierce People''s premise of a teenager studying rich people like animals is grating and self-satisfied, and Anton Yelchin's smug performance makes the film even harder to agree with." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 54% based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * {{Griffin Dunne 2005 films 2000s thriller drama films American coming-of-age films American independent films 2005 independent films American thriller drama films Canadian thriller drama films English-language Canadian films 2000s Tagalog-language films Films directed by Griffin Dunne Films based on American novels Films set in New Jersey Films shot in Vancouver Films shot in New Jersey Lionsgate films Films about dysfunctional families Films about rape 2005 drama films Films about drugs Films about the upper class Films about mother–son relationships 2000s American films 2000s Canadian films