"Bullhead" is a dark, convoluted Belgian drama, an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011, which succeeds almost entirely on the rugged shoulders of Matthias Schoenaerts. His fantastic performance creates a memorable character named Jacky, a muscled loner filled with amorphous rage that spills over in unexpected moments. Jacky is a steroid using cattle rancher who works out an arrangement with some meat-trading Dutch mobsters, only to try and back out when an investigating federal agent is gunned down.
It is this sequence of events forces him to revisit a horrific incident from his childhood 20 years ago, as well as the people who were involved in that pivotal moment of his life. The back-story of Vanmarsenille's anger is revealed in flashbacks to his adolescence, when his life is forever altered. Most films feature a character that must face and overcome, and it is just the opposite in "Bullhead."
Jacky has become expert in the use of hormones over the course of his life. He gobbles pills, stabs himself with needles, and throws punches in the air like De Niro in "Raging Bull" (1980). The sight of Jacky curled in the fetal position in his bathroom, or shadow boxing in front of a window after he has just injected himself with hormones gets a little repetitive, but it's always dramatically shot. These moments also serve as a window to Jacky's true self. His jittery attempts to reconnect with his childhood crush--a vibrant woman named Lucia (Jeanne Dandoy), who now runs a perfume store in the French-speaking part of the country, are truly heartbreaking because he is so clearly uncomfortable in his own skin. Jacky constantly has some type of chemical rushing through his veins, so you never know when he's going to explode. He's dangerous, unstable, and intimidating- yet you can't help but feel sympathy for the guy.
"Bullhead" contains the elements for a simple story of personal tragedy, and yet at times it becomes messy and overbearing. A hazily sketched-out story line involving a dead cop, beef traders, and "the hormone Mafia underworld," with Jacky loosely connected to them all. At the heart of this story is a man and his obsession, and his destructive inner demons, which he has never been able to control. With Schoenaerts' impressive performance, you get the feeling that would be more than enough for this film. Roskam's habit of elliptical storytelling abandons motivational explanations, and the narrative makes the viewer work harder than usual to understand contextual issues. That being said, it is a fine directorial debut for Michaël Roskam, and Matthias Schoenaerts is now no longer under the radar.
