BRUISER

Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) is a man who has always tried to live by the rules, not drawing attention to himself and behaving well. But despite this, many people, especially those closest to him, have hurt him: his wife cheats on him, his best friend robs him, and his boss continuously humiliates him. But when Henry wakes up one morning without his face, along with his face, he frees himself from his fears, loses his previous identity, and decides to take revenge on everyone who has made him suffer… After a nearly ten-year hiatus (his last directed film was the disappointing "La Metà Oscura" of 1992), Romero returns behind the camera with this "Bruiser" produced by the French Canal Plus and arrived in Italy only for the home video market (…and almost two years late!). A rather interesting subject (work of Romero himself) that starts from a premise (loss of identity) not exactly original that could however develop into interesting twists (revenge, the search for respect and self-dignity) but "could", just that, if it weren't that the film quickly loses itself in banality and takes on the tones of the worst television product. No real off-the-wall point, no "punch in the stomach" to which the director had (almost) always accustomed us: we are far from the "uncomfortable" cinema of early Romero, here everything is immersed in a desolate mediocrity; a film that never "balances" and remains still in a sort of "limbo" halfway between the sloppy commercial product and the sterile author's work. Too carefully directed (tracking shots, dolly shots, and panoramas in repetition), discreetly acted, well photographed but unexpressive and unable to captivate or give strong emotions. And thinking that the production had left Romero the "final cut" on the film, there were therefore all the premises and conditions for a return to hard and pure horror, instead this "Bruiser" comes out, a completely innocuous, flavorless and colorless product, classic "recycling" film for home video distribution. A real shame for a work that the New York director cared about particularly and which, in the end, turned out to be a failure, a flop worldwide (and especially in the USA) both with the public and the critics. Given the last films directed by the now mythical (and mythologized) director of "Zombi", one begins to doubt that Romero can no longer express himself at the levels of the first part of his career…