Boot Camp (2007) - Christian Duguay

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Plot - Sophie (Mila Kunis) is the typical spoilt rebellious rich girl who after embarrassing her mother and her step-father one time too many, is signed off to attend a boot camp on a remote Pacific island for troublesome teenagers. The camp is run by a Doctor Hail who with a mixture of back-breaking menial tasks and group confessional therapy looks to break down and rebuild these teens into productive members of society. Sophie rebels against this and it's soon a battle of wills. Her boyfriend joins her, after being busted for doing drugs, and together they look to somehow escape the island.

Thoughts - the most interesting thing about the film is the based on true events tag. Apparently there are such boot camps, not that surprising in itself but that there have been 31 deaths is a shock(since the 1980's)

The film itself is a muddled mess. Don't let the unrated tag fool you; this is a psychological drama with some very mild scenes of abuse, let alone any actual scenes of horror. Honestly though once you've seen how these people behave...well the scenes of abuse, it's the least they have coming. Haphazardly paced and intellectually ponderous this is a film that thinks it's smarter than it actually is. One of the main problems is the character Kunis plays. Rather than have her battle alone against the doctor, a la Cool Hand Luke/Patrick McGoohan rebelling against a closed system, they reunite her with her absurdly bland boyfriend. It's he who intellectually debates with the professor, he who plans the escape, he who get's into scrapes, Kunis just wonders around in a lifeless daze, most likely wondering why on earth she signed this contract. She has no agency and it seems purely a gender thing to tack on a redundant 'love conquers all' story. If Kunis' character was male, her love interest would get, I'd wager at most a few scenes at the beginning and at the end, maybe a flashback, but here the decision to have this boyfriend character be so pivotal takes away both from her and the film itself. And if he was meant to be some sort of lead the initial scenes make no sense since they're all form Kunis' perspective. Plus he is really dull. Like really, really dull.

There's also a problem when the main obstacle to the protagonists is actually more sympathetic than they are. Doctor Hail played quite well by Peter Storemore is a genuinely decent guy He's looking to rebuild parent-children relationships working on both parties, he genuinely, for some obscure reason to me, cares about these ungrateful twats. He recognises the blame lies with both sides and what is his reward? Well, it's not what he deserves at any rate. The writers must have subconsciously recognised this with a late, 'totally-out-of-character' turn by him to elicit sympathy for the 'heroes'. No dice, chum. Throw in a stereotypical abusive drill sergeant and some rape along with some sub-par Lord of the Flies scenes and it's a film that just hasn't worked. No doubt the director's intentions are admirable and he's tried to tell an intelligent story about abdication of parental responsibility in modern society or the alienation between generations, it just hasn't worked. It's not smart enough for a psychological study, not gory or atmospheric enough for a horror and not moving enough for a love story. Avoid.

3/10

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