Quick Review: The Flock (2008)

Right off the bat, I know you're thinking "Richard Gere playing the tough guy? Yeah, right!" And who am I to blame you? Between Pretty Woman, and so many rampant rumors involving gerbils in his ass over the years, you have to take his credibility as a tough guy into question at some point.

The Flock though, shows Gere at his gritty best, as a stressed out Department of Public Safety worker who has basically fallen to pieces after so many years of wrangling sex offenders. You see, Errol not only acts as a sex offender probation officer, but he tends to hound them and treat them like animals, and has even gone vigilante on a few of them. With three weeks left until his forced early retirement, he finds himself also forced into something else; training his replacement, cute little Allison (Claire Danes.)

Cute & intense.

Allison is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to fight the good fight, within the confines of the law, of course. She believes that sex offenders can be rehabilitated, while Errol believes that they're all monsters that are beyond redemption. She learns that lesson quick enough as they both get drawn deeper into the case of a missing girl, and are forced to delve into the seedy underbelly of the city's rapists and pedo's to find her.

If Richard Gere doesn't trust them, then neither do I!

It sounds trite and cliche, but really, this movie is anything but. The Flock is a pretty gritty and intense thriller, which shows that dealing with monsters can and most likely will make you become one as well. Gere is great here as the veteran perv wrangler who has seen too much in his day, and he elicits we the viewer to feel his pain. He also elicited me to cheer him on in his creepo-vigilante mission, because I'm all for dishing it out to those that need the dishing. It being vengeance of course.

This bitch right here...

This is one of our under the radar faves here at THC; not because it's a perfect or even an amazing film, but because the subject matter is so creepy and compelling, that we can't help but love the dysfunction of it all. Sexual offenders are everywhere, and truth be told, they're probably closer to us on a daily basis than we will ever know or care to. That's not me trying to sound paranoid or alarmist, but the fact of the matter is that plenty of people are into odd, nasty and even sickening things, and most of them don't stay in jail too long.

Just kill them and bury them in the desert. The world would be a better place.

If you like crime thrillers involving the creepy underbelly of society, then this one might just be worth your time. Though not his best movie, this is probably my favorite role that I've seen Richard Gere play. It's really good stuff.

B+

Claire Danes in in this. Also, KaDee Strickland and Avril Lavigne.