Money Matters

Fierce People is a sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying comingof-age film that's set in an insular w/w-wealthy landscape where social climbing is a blood sport. It's directed by Griffin Dunne with a screenplay by Dirk Wittenborn, based on his novel. Finn (Anton Yelchin) is a New York City teenager who was planning on spending the summer in the rain forest studying the Ishkanani people with the anthropologist father he has never met. Instead he's hauled off to an estate deep in the wilds of New Jersey by his working-class cokehead masseuse mother, Liz (Diane Lane). In an effort to clean up her act, Liz accepts the offer of a summer in the

country from an enormously rich ex-client, Mr. Osborne Fierce People. (Donald Sutherland). As the outsider looking in, Finn real-

izes that the wealthy offer as much anthropological opportunity as the Ishkanani and begins comparing the cultures of his father's documentary to the behaviors of the rich, juxtaposing the mores of high society with the savagery of the Ishkanani tribe. The story intensifies when Finn falls in love with Osborne's granddaughter Maya (Kristen Stewart) and seeks acceptance in the moneyed tribe—thus threatening the No. 1 grandson. As the Osborne family unravels, their extreme and violent behavior reminds us of how seductive money and power are and how primitive even those of us with the most toys can be. But, in the end, Mr. Osborne's favorite phrase triumphs: "Ex Malo Bonum," Good out Of Evil.

A.M. HOMES