Review of A Vigilante (2019) by Hotelcentral — 04 Dec 2019

A convincing job by Olivia Wilde, but I'm not sure what this film is trying to be. I get the feeling that somewhere there's someone waiting to explain, in detail, that this is how victims of domestic violence and violent trauma evolve, at least some of the time. And if this film were presented as a dramatization, then fine. As a film, though, it's slow. And just when we get to the scene where the final confrontation should occur our heroine Sadie hesitates, because, one might guess, she really just needs to be beaten one last time before she can pull the metaphorical trigger and deliver vigilante justice to her abuser.

So then another 15, 20 minutes and when the moment for justice arrives we're deprived of seeing exactly how Sadie overcomes the disadvantages of size and weight, and having a broken arm, to get her abuser into a position where she can, well . . . do what she needs to do.

And, ok, fine. The film doesn't want to indulge in gratuitous violence. But, you know, a film is a film and it needs to entertain and that's where this film falls short.