The Book of Eli
2010
***
Director: The Hughes brothers
Cast: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals, Michael Gambon, Frances de la Tour
Following a nuclear holocaust, an enigmatic wanderer named Eli guards the last remaining copy of a mysterious book he plans to bring to the west coast. In the middle of nowhere, he runs into Carnegie, a self-appointed leader of the run-down town, who believes this book could give him power over the people. The fifth film by the Hughes brothers is a post-apocalyptic Western, a harrowing survival drama, a moving morality tale, a dodgy Christian parable, and a kick-ass action film. It's one strange concoction of ideas, at once harrowingly realistic, laughably implausible, thought-provoking and empty-headed, but consistently entertaining. The visual look is initially striking, but the fifty shades of grey numbed my senses after a while.
