Critic Reviews

Watching it can be a troubling experience, and by the end a grueling one; it is also richly rewarding drama that doesn’t let anybody off the hook, characters or viewers.

The Life And Deaths Of Wilson Shedd is brutal, bruising, psychologically rich, and deeply moving—a prison drama about crime and punishment, but also loneliness, retribution, freedom, and the strange ways isolated people find one another. Nelson refuses easy moral arithmetic, leaving behind a film as unsettling in its compassion as it is uncompromising in its violence.

Nelson took 12 years to get the project made, and that labor-of-love aspect shows in the soulfulness and meticulous care the writer-director brings to this unsettling story of violence begetting violence, based on actual events.

It holds you with the stark realism of its craft (this is a film about criminals but not a “thriller”), and with what it’s about: how human violence carves out its own realm of existence, and then feeds on itself.

The depth and clarity of Wilson Shedd's character is what makes the film worth watching, and the message it leaves behind is haunting enough to keep you thinking long after the credits have rolled.

Much of The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd’s power comes from the ambiguity of the characters’ motivations. That can make for an uncomfortable watch at times, but also a fascinating one.

Like a sports drama straining to contrive a suspenseful reason for its big final game to go into overtime, “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd” puts in a lot of work — much of it raw and believable — just to knot up the score before the grand finale.

Although greatly uneven, Tim Blake Nelson’s latest is still an affecting film that may be a frustrating and upsetting watch, but one that undoubtedly lingers and is sure to spur conversation in its own wake of discomfort.

The Life And Deaths wants viewers to be unsettled, and it is impossible not to be moved by the film’s final moments. But even here, Nelson struggles to find new things to say about how killing begets more terrible killing.

Bogged down by a structure that cheapens the impact of his material and directed with a competence that doesn’t inspire a strong reaction, it’s a film whose sincere convictions can’t escape its flaws.