The Vicious Kind

Director: Lee Toland Krieger Lee Toland Krieger

Overview

Untrusting of women following a bitter breakup on the eve of Thanksgiving, a misanthropic construction worker finds himself inexplicably attracted to his younger brother's new girlfriend. Caleb Sinclaire (Adam Scott) has just been through a particularly difficult breakup. Isolated, yet strangely contented with his newly single status, Caleb wears his distain toward women as a macho badge of honor. However, when Thanksgiving weekend arrives and Caleb meets his younger brother Peter's (Alex Frost) new girlfriend, Emma (Brittany Snow), his initial attempts to convince his sibling that the relationship will yield nothing but pain are quickly sidelined by his growing attraction to the beautiful girl. His vulnerability gradually bubbling to the surface over the course of the holiday weekend, Caleb is soon forced to confront the feelings that he's been trying so desperately to conceal beneath a swaggering facade.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/23/2010
UPC:	0014381642827
Original Release:	2008
Rating:	R
Source:	Image Entertainment
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:32:00

Special Features

Commentary with director Lee Toland Krieger & actor Adam Scott; Director's commentary; Behind-the-scenes footage; Deleted & extended scenes; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Adam Scott	Caleb Sinclaire
Alex Frost	Peter Sinclaire
Brittany Snow	Emma Gainsborough
J.K. Simmons	Donald Sinclaire
Alysia Reiner	Samantha
Kate Krieger	Molly
Bill Buell	Rocky
Vittorio Brahm	J.T.
Jordan Berkow	Hannah
Emily Jo	Actor
Jeff Cardoni	Composer

Technical Credits

Lee Toland Krieger

Lee Toland Krieger	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Tim Harms	Producer
Lindsay Lanzillotta	Producer
Neil LaBute	Executive Producer
Chris Finefrock	Executive Producer
Ryan Horton	Executive Producer
Andy Rudenstein	Executive Producer
Jeff Gross	Executive Producer
Rebecca Gushin	Casting
Manny Siverio	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

Adam Scott has spent his career in supporting roles, serving as a smarmy jerk in the mold of Tom Cruise, most hilariously in Adam McKay's Step Brothers. But The Vicious Kind proves he's also had a dramatic leading man burning inside him, just waiting for a good showcase. In writer-director Lee Toland Krieger's intimate character study, Scott plays Caleb, a scraggly, bearded insomniac angry over his ex-girlfriend's infidelity. And he's such a hypnotic presence that the performance earned him an Independent Spirit nomination. Some credit for his work should go to his incendiary chemistry with actress Brittany Snow, who plays the girlfriend of Caleb's boring, straight-laced brother. These two must fight a nearly primitive level of mutual attraction, in which acts of mental and physical violence serve as a kind of aphrodisiac. The actors' performances are so good, and the erotic tension between them so thick, that they put the audience in the unusual position of rooting for him to betray his brother, and her to betray her boyfriend. The Vicious Kind is, at heart, a study of the roughness and imperfection of family love. Caleb's other volatile relationship is an epic estrangement from his father, played by J.K. Simmons -- another comic actor this film liberates, letting him indulge his powerful serious side. Their butting of heads yields great fireworks. The cost of getting these moments, however, is that Krieger conveniently buries his most passive character, the brother/boyfriend. Playing the role of Peter, Alex Frost leaves little impression, partly due to his performance, partly due to how the character is written -- he misses most of the movie's major scenes either through total obliviousness, or by sleeping through noisy incidents that might awake a coma patient. A few such logistical sacrifices are eminently forgivable, since they enable such satisfying drama.