http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/09/07/FIERCE-PEOPLE-Its-Got-Some-Bite.aspx FIERCE PEOPLE is a movie that should be applauded for its ambition.  If its execution isn’t perfect, it at least serves as an object lesson of the inherent difficulties in bringing a complex book to the screen. Adopted by Dirk Wittenborn from his own novel, the film quite cleverly juxtaposes and compares the behavior of a primitive South American tribe called the FIERCE PEOPLE with the behavior of their supposedly more civilized cousins in ritzy, upscale New Jersey horse country of the 1970s. At its center is 16-year-old Finn Earl, whose only real connection to his anthropologist father is through the documentaries Dad does about the Ishkanani people.  However, his plans to spend the summer with dad are aborted when his drug addicted mom has a crisis the morning she is to accompany him to the Passport office.  Finn has to run to the local “drug” store for her eight ball and is caught up in a sweep when the place is raided. Apparently, the experience is enough to scare mom Liz (Diane Lane) straight.  She calls an old friend, a rich man whose life she once saved, takes Finn and goes to his house for the summer.  The man, Osborne (Donald Sutherland), is so wealthy he owns 10 square miles of the state, appointed his chauffeur as the local police chief.  Everyone in the area is apparently beholden to Osborne. en-US Critics Rant info@criticsrant.com Subtext Version 1.9.4.0 http://www.criticsrant.com/images/default_gravatar_bullhorn.png http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/09/07/FIERCE-PEOPLE-Its-Got-Some-Bite.aspx 77 60