Harsh Times

Training Day scribe David Ayer makes his directorial debut with this choppy and inconsistent thriller. Harsh Times drifts through genres and rips through logic too extensively to ever really be successful. It has its fair share of wise insights and great moments, but everything good is buried within a heap of convoluted plot. Christian Bale gives another good performance here as Jim Davis, a veteran whose moral conduct code and sense of responsibility have been warped by his brutal service time. Upon his return from battle, he meets up with old friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez) and the two proceed to drive around Los Angeles drinking, smoking, and making recreation their personal profession. Both are looking for jobs (although not too hard), and they intend to savor their freedom while it lasts. The problem is that Jim has been so badly damaged by war that he is gradually becoming psychologically unhinged. This descent from playful through to shockingly intense is the core of the film and its best crafted story. Unfortunately, so many subplots clutter the movie that these developments are sadly underplayed. Besides, Ayer ultimately takes the film so far over the edge that we no longer believe in Jim and lose our concern for him as a character.

Ayer is gifted at writing “guy talk” and at his best when exploring the gap between machismo and actual aggression. He personifies these reckless and violent men with really striking layers of depth behind their swagger. Had he narrowed his focus a bit and kept rewriting and revitalizing these emotional stories, this would have been a much better film. As it is now, it’s a sometimes worthwhile, often ridiculous, but never dull account of two men’s wild ride through L.A.

Grade: C+