The Flock

2007
R
1h 36m

IMDb RATING

5.7/10

12K

YOUR RATING

Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

A hyper-vigilant employee of the department of public safety, while training his young female replacement, has to track down a missing girl who he is convinced is connected to a paroled sex ... Read allA hyper-vigilant employee of the department of public safety, while training his young female replacement, has to track down a missing girl who he is convinced is connected to a paroled sex offender he is investigating.A hyper-vigilant employee of the department of public safety, while training his young female replacement, has to track down a missing girl who he is convinced is connected to a paroled sex offender he is investigating.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.7/10

12K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Prologue: "There are over half a million registered sex offenders in the United States. For every 1000 offenders, there is only one caseworker that monitors them. Every two minutes a woman or child is sexually assaulted in America."

Goofs
As Gere's and Dane's characters are in the car chasing after Custis, Custis hurls a garbage can at the windshield. We see from the inside as the windshield becomes a spiderweb of cracks, thus causing Gere to careen into the conveniently located pile of soft garbage nearby. The pair leaps out of the car and the windshield is suddenly repaired.

Quotes
Erroll Babbage: People like Paul and Viola Gerard don't just tell lies, they *are* lies. In public they're decent, socially-responsible folk who look you in the eye, but never long enough to make you uncomfortable. They shake your hand, pat you on the back, but never overdo it. They're Christian if you are, they swear if you do, and they do this because people like you wrongly believe that public presentation tell us all about private lives.

Alternate versions
After the film was released in European and Asian markets, several portions of the film were reshot and the entire film was basically reedited. The result is that the tone of the US version is less bleak and grim.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian/The Tracey Fragments/How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer/Reprise/The Flock (2008)

Soundtracks
Knocking on Old Doors
Written by Tracy Hall
Performed by Tracy Adams

User reviews59

Review

Featured review

6/10

Better than they say. Hell, better than "8 MM" too.

I have just seen this movie. It just opened today (November 9th 2007) in Spain. Let me say that I understand the bad word of mouth the movie is having, it deals with a difficult subject (sexual abusers) and its tone is as dark as say "9 MM", if not darker.

But all things considered it's a pretty good film. The investigation angle makes for a very tense thriller, but where the film really shines is in the depiction of Richard Gere's characters, as well as the villain's, which I won't reveal.

Gere is really all stops go here, it's easily his most intense role since "Internal Affairs". Even if you are not Gere fans, you're gonna love him in this.

On the minus side, I didn't like the way the film is edited. It's full of flashes, freeze frames and all those "arty" stuff they cram into your TV series and direct-to-DVD movies. I understand they wanted to give the movie a hard edge, but it's often too distracting. The film is already dark and gritty enough as it is, and this bells and whistles don't add a damn thing.

And then there's Claire Danes. look, she's an OK actress, but she was like a fish out of water here. They give her character some interesting background, but she's constantly out off key. She looks like a raving lunatic when she tries to act quirky or vulnerable, and not very convincing when the script calls for her character to toughen up a little.

So, it's an interesting movie if you can go beyond the surface of its visual trickery, but not as good as it could be. I would say it earns a 6'5 - 7 in my scale.