At Folsom State Prison, convicts meet weekly for intensive mass therapy. They invite members of the public to join them for a four-day session. Where three men from abroad will participate in a four-day group retreat with a group of imprisoned men.
A simple, tense, gritty auditing of a collective unburdening that obviously brings some needed clarity, and the promise of rehabilitation, to some hurt, searching souls.
The daring approach of McLeary and Aldous' filmmaking, completely immersive without trying to be invisible or to influence the chain of events, is ... proven to have been a risk worth taking.
By simply watching the participants talk about their feelings, sometimes in the vaguest of terms, McLeary illustrates how men build strong façades to conceal their pain from others and themselves.
... The Work is a beautiful film, all the more so because of its willingness to step into the fear and find a raw, unremitting beauty in the witnessing of healing.
More than just an advertisement for the process depicted, The Work carries a profound, implicit point about a culture that encourages men to bottle up what they feel, then condemns them after those emotions express themselves in violent, destructive ways.
