Frailty

Frailty is a gritty thriller and an unintentional self-parody at the same time. Bill Paxton isn’t so much a bad guy as a naïve director. If Sam Raimi (who receives “special thanks” in the closing credits) had made this film, it could have been a solid thriller. As it is, it’s just a slap in the face to anyone who underestimates Shyamalan’s Signs as a fable about faith. (03/31/2003)

A surprisingly good script with a solid twist, sensational child actors, the standard Bill Paxton, from whom I was expecting more "craziness", and interesting tension in the scenes with Matthew McConaughey and Powers Booth. Frailty isn't worth four pure stars, but I was so impressed by a few really nasty scenes that I'll round the three and a half up. The fact that I'll gladly watch this film again (some time later) is definitely a plus. And it'll be because of its script again. (07/07/2011)

Incredibly predictable film. There’s something wrong when I can guess every twist well before it happens, but the most disappointing one was the final one; I hoped I had guessed wrong. Unfortunately, that was not the case and the ending ruined all the good stuff that had been built so far – mostly the decent atmosphere and the interesting story. In the end, Frailty is nothing but generic silliness like a lot of other stuff coming from America. That ending is terrible, the three stars are for the part before the twist. (09/01/2008)

Frailty is a solid directorial effort from Paxton, where he chose an intriguing script and skillfully translated it into a suspenseful film with an engaging story and excellent performances. The film isn't as gritty as it could have been, or rather, it's not as explicit, but that's okay because it still has a very good atmosphere that is oppressive, and most of the time it leaves you wondering if Meiks is crazy or not. (08/16/2017)