Finally, I have seen it. I've been dying to see this since the moment I first heard about it last year during Cannes film festival. This film left me in a stupor at the end. I think I was bound to love this film. It is unlike anything I've seen before. The subject matter of nature vs. nurture is something I've always been interested in and Lynne Ramsey dissects it in such a sublime way. The entire structure of the film and how it shifts between the past and present is done with beautiful precision, leaving little room for laggy scenes that drag on for too long. It is almost as if the shifts are fragments of Eva's memories as she walks through her present life trying to piece together just what went wrong. I was glued to the screen the entire time, never has the flow felt like an issue for me. If anything, I felt that John C. Reilly was miscast, but that is where my minor quibbles start and end. It is immensely thought provoking which is why I just sat there when the credits started to roll. It hit me hard, and mostly I have to attribute it to Ramsey's solid direction of the subject matter and Tilda Swanton's complete immersion into a deeply wrecked and troubled mother, in both the present and past sections of the film. Ezra Miller has also done an outstanding job, especially during the very...[more]...

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This is a review that I wrote back in 2006 that I just stumbled upon. I was going through a Dirty Harry marathon at the time. Here it is below.

A ruthless, well paced, directed and acted ( by the lead lady, and the always bad muddafucker Eastwood ) chapter. The best of the series. The first half is comedy, some of the one-liners Harry delivers are humorous, and seeing him going from place to place having wreckless fun chasing, and beating on bad guys is a treat. Plus there's nothing like seeing 4 cops arguing with Callahan in the room telling him about his wrecklessness and suggesting he ought to get 'a vacation' when Dirty Harry refuses.

The movie's got a nice pace, it starts out fun, full of one liners and a few decent gun shootouts, but then it switches gears and gets into the 'serious' mode, jokes aside, and full on seriousness. Harry takes a bad beating, people get brutally killed.

An overall, improved film. Eastwood's direction was pretty dang good so early in his career. I also liked the leading lady played by Sondra Locke.

If The Dead Pool doesn't deliver the goods, then this baby is here to stay. So far the best chapter of the series.

8/10. A good Dirty ol' time.