Child of God (2013)

Child of God, Cormic McCarthy's 1973 novel about a necrophiliac serial killer in the rural east Tennessee of the early 1960's is probably the most disturbing work of fiction I have ever read, and James Franco's 2013 film version isn't pleasant going either. While nicely shot, and capably acted the film alternates between the disturbing and the boring, and frankly the latter quality feels worse. The source marital is not a natural fit for a movie, and Scott Haze's portrayal of Lester Ballard invites some sympathy for the character, and he's a monster, I don't want to feel sympathy for him. I understand that Franco made this film as a sort of trial run, with the ultimate intention being to adapt McCarthy's better regarded novel Blood Meridian into a film, and the actor turned director does demonstrate sufficient talent here to make me curious what that movie would be like. One of the things that I did like about this film was its use of multiple, documentary style narrators, which I thought was clever and added to the film. Unfortunately this story is just not one I really want to see depicted on screen, and the films total felt less then the substance of its parts. *1/2