Affliction

Nick Nolte and James Coburn deliver some of the finest work of their respective careers in this powerful but troubling adaptation of Russell Banks's novel. Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is the sheriff in a small New England town; it's a part-time job with few taxing responsibilities, and Wade fills ...more

Nick Nolte and James Coburn are magnificent in this powerful, brutal tale of alcoholism and emotional neglect in a dysfunctional family. No stranger to portraits of male rage, writer-director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Mosquito Coast) imbues the film with a discomforting wintry bleakness. Though the story -- based on a novel by Russell Banks, the author responsible for the similarly chilly The Sweet Hereafter -- may not exactly inspire, the raw, truthful performances of the two ...more