ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Arthur Carringford Since no one got it, let me explain this to you. This is an attempt to adapt the theme of a 1966 movie that Ingmar Bergman made called, Persona. In that movie, a prominent actress has had some sort of mental breakdown, becomes unfeeling and has retreated from communication with the world. A maid is hired to take care of her who is healthy, vibrant, carefree. As the two characters develop a connection they start to rely on each other for validation and emotional support, eventually the characters reverse roles. The actress returns to the top of her professional and it is clear that she has drawn energy and emotional power from the maid. At the same time the maid has been left an enervated mass of self-doubt and paranoia. The artist transformed herself by art, but accomplished that by sucking the life out of the original youth and vitality of her companion.The same thing happens in this interaction between a prisoner (Ed Norton) and his case officer (Robert De Niro), or at least that is the idea. In the beginning, the prisoner is vengeful, paranoid and self-destructive. At the same time, the case officer is a religious man with a settled working class existence, apparently respected in his job and a tranquil, picturesque family life.The scenes of interaction between Ed Norton and Robert De Niro are of the essence because we see the case officer slowly become more manipulative and hostile, at the same time that the prisoner becomes more natural and willing to let go to the extent of acceptance if he is denied parole.The problem is that beginning with what must have been a masterful script, somehow the director, and most especially the film editor, never got the message and apparently never knew what their own movie was about. As a consequence they tried to twist into a straight thriller with ambiguous motives, artificial tension as we follow closeups of the officer's gun and phone calls to the officer's home that might or might not be threatening.Both of the characters have a guilty secret from their pasts that they are attempting to deal with. The prisoner finally recognizes his guilt and puts it in perspective, and at the same time he derives a sort of spiritual sustenance by a direct connection to the sound current of the yogis. The case officer never deals with his guilty and it isolates him from his wife and the religious aspects of his life that ultimately give him no spiritual sustenance.In the end the two characters have reverse positions. The prisoner is both free and healthy. The case officer is trapped in own sickness of guilt and paranoia. The final confrontation that takes place in an alley does not work because, apparently for Hollywood purposes, the case officer has a gun in his hand. You now understand this movie better than the director did. Too bad, because it could have been great. Can you imagine, Persona accessible to American audiences? It could have been a classic.

The Grand Master Robert De Niro and Edward Norton were a great pairing in the underrated thriller The Score (2001) and seeing these two reunite for Stone had me interested. Ultimately the film was a total disappointment and I wanted to continue to persist with this however I found myself wondering why did I continue to do so. It just seems like the glory days for Robert De Niro and Edward Norton are well and truly behind them.Robert De Niro is parole officer Jack Mabry who is heading towards retirement and is aiming to finish the cases he's been assigned, one of them being the case of convicted arsonist Gerald "Stone" Creeson, played by Edward Norton who is up for parole. Jack ignores Stone's pleas for an early release from prison and in order for Stone to get out, he arranges for his wife Lucetta played by Milla Jovovich seduce Jack and try to convince him to release Stone from prison. From there, the mind games start.I just couldn't feel like I was engaged and interested with this movie. I just felt that it was too slow and disjointed.Robert De Niro's glory days seemed to have ended with The Score (2001) being his last decent movie. Since then, a lot of his movies have been met with little success. Perhaps he should look for better roles or even smaller roles. His role as Jack Mabry seemed like it could have been played by an actor 20 years younger than him.Edward Norton is another quality actor who has been better. He made a huge impact with his first role in Primal Fear (1996) which netted him critical acclaim as well as a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination. Other movies such as American History X (1998), Fight Club (1999), and 25th Hour (2002) without a doubt are his best movies to date. I couldn't help but constantly expect that his role in Stone was going to be similar to his role in Primal Fear.Milla Jovovich as Stone's wife Lucetta was nothing special and I had the "I've seen it before" feeling when seeing her in this movie.Stone was a dour Thriller/Drama and as much as I wanted to see the movie unfold, I couldn't get into it.Unless nothing else is on, give this a miss.4/10.

SnoopyStyle Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) is a complicated man. As a young father, he hangs his daughter out the window to force his wife Madylyn (Frances Conroy) to stay. He has a few weeks before retirement as the prison parole eligibility officer. One of his last cases is Gerald 'Stone' Creeson (Edward Norton). He's combative but also demanding to get out early. He gets his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) to seduce Mabry.De Niro and Norton get a couple of interesting characters to work with. This seems to be set up for some great acting and intense character drama. I do like the interactions between the two leads. Jovovich is able to keep up. It stumbles here and there. I don't really get the mishmash of religion in this. I think this could have been award winning performances if the movie is better written.

InakiArias This is the typical movie you watch by chance in TV. There are two great actors (not in their best times) and an interesting actress (Jovovich)and you give it a chance.After the introduction the spectator at least thinks that he's going to watch an indie, alternative film full of deepness and complexity.OK, there is none of them. The plot tries to be complex and you spent the whole time waiting for something that doesn't appear. We don't have to mix a strange, non-clear message with a complex one. About the deepness or the finality of the story, the same. A bit of new age, a bit of cheap psychology, a mixture of religious and ethics content, you mix everything and you get a cocktail from which we get this ridiculous movie.I'm sure that there is someone who will defend this movie because of the characters's ambiguity and something like that, but don't be fooled, the characters personality, actually is very bad written.Following with the acting, the overall isn't as bad as other points of the movie but it isn't remarkable. De Niro is such a genius that even doing the minimum effort he success in being enigmatic but, on the other hand, he's very far from him best moment. However, after having such a great career it's forgivable for a near to 70 years old man to be just the shadow of what he was. It's worse if the situation is the same, but being only 40 and doing the same performance again, again and again... but worse than ever. Very bad for you Norton, I think if you keep on like this, you're finished. Milla Jovovich, on the other hand makes a unexpectedly solid interpretation, congrats for her. If you want to watch a solid psychological thriller, this isn't your movie. This is a bad experiment and a big loss of time.