Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alex Manette, John Domam, Judith Roberts, Alessandro Nivola
Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment
Runtime: 89 mins. Reviewed in Sep 2018
| 
| 
This English speaking, multi-national, thriller film is based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Ames that was published in 2013. It tells the story of a traumatised Gulf War veteran, who is hired to track down and rescue trafficked girls. Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for the film’s main role, and the movie won Best Screenplay at the same festival. The screenplay was written by the film’s Scottish director, Lynne Ramsay.
In the film, Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) accepts a new job for New York State Senator, Albert Votto (Alex Manette), who wants to rescue his missing 13-year-old daughter, Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), who has been abducted by a ring of Manhattan pedophiles. Following an anonymous tip-off, Joe stakes out a brothel for wealthy clientele and rescues Nina, after killing several patrons and security guards in his rescue attempt. At a motel with Nina, Joe learns that Senator Votto has committed suicide, and fearing the worst, he escapes after being ambushed by the Police.
Joe’s handler, John McCleary (John Doman), has been murdered in the search for his home address. Arriving home, Joe encounters two agent-assassins who have killed his ailing, senile mother (Judith Roberts), and are lying in wait for him. One of them reveals under blood-stained duress that the pedophile conspiracy is organised by Senator (Governor) Williams (Alessandro Nivola), and that Nina is “his favourite”. Joe follows Williams to his country house where Nina waits with a blood-stained razor in her hand, having slit the Senator’s throat. They leave together, with Joe on the brink of insanity, haunted by a recurring death wish to end his life.
This movie is grim cinema-fare, but offers a compelling dissection of aggression, desperation, and political corruption. Joaquin Phoenix excels in the role of Joe. His preferred weapon is a hammer because it leaves less evidence and frightens people more. The film explores systems of power, and the abuse contained within them, and graphically depicts an evil world where politics and sexual aberration go hand in hand. The film tightly binds grief, violence, and corruption together.
Lynne Ramsay, the Director shows stunning mastery of what makes quality cinema. She compels the viewer to feel what is happening on the screen, and the film focuses starkly on the emotions that accompany grim events. Personal anguish is linked with institutionalised corruption, and Ramsay grounds her film in what Joe thinks and feels.The effect is captured superbly by Joaquin Phoenix in a tightly constrained performance of a deeply traumatised man. The structured nature of Ramsay’s direction is supported by brilliant cinematography that patterns images, often keeping the main point of interest away from the front of the scene being photographed – challenging the viewer to search for (and find) what is lurking, or visible, in the background.
Violence in the film is reflected in the consequences of aggression rather than the act itself, and the mood of the film is accentuated by an evocative musical score. Phoenix’s interpretation of Joe earmarks him as one of the best movie actors of his time. Here, he plumbs the violent psyche of a disturbed, vengeful man who is nevertheless capable of child-like sweetness, which Ramsay shows by Joe joking with his mother, and gently singing in unison with a dying assassin.
This is a disturbing movie that is hard to watch, but its images will linger long after the final credits have rolled by. Scenes of great beauty are interspersed with eruptions of violence, and the musical score heightens the film’s sensory impact. This is a film that offers a compelling account of one man’s unresolved trauma in an evil world, where suffering abounds.
This is a skilfully crafted, sparsely scripted, and stylish thriller that almost dares you to like it. The film demonstrates highly original direction by Lynne Ramsay, and Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, as a vulnerable person seeking redemption and meaning in life, is outstanding.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
Review #1750
12 Random Films…
