Review of Blue Ruin (2014) by Norberto F — 26 Aug 2014

This film has been dubbed as a classic "revenge movie," but I take issue with that description. It's more of a "feud movie" than a "revenge movie," because the revenge in question takes place in the first 30 minutes of the film, and the rest of the film deals with its aftermath.

Our unlikely hero, Dwight, who drops his keys at the scene of the crime and misses at point blank range with firearms, is rather messily entangled with the Cleland family, a surly group with rural inclinations and suggestions of poverty, sort of a modern day Hatfield or McCoy clan. One of them murdered both his parents one night while he was in high school, and upon his release from prison, Dwight fears that he or his ex-wife will be targeted for sending him there, so he follows him after his release and stabs him to death in a dive bar restroom. The rest of what plays out is gritty, intense, grinding, and inevitable, and quite compelling to watch.

The feud plays out in a cat-and-mouse game of attack and counterattack, with home invasions, kidnapping, stalking, all that good stuff of which I am so terrified. It's no wonder I didn't come away from this movie as a nervous wreck. I guess it helps that none of my family has ever murdered anyone. The conflict builds to a titanic confrontation at the Cleland home, where Dwight lies in wait for the rest of the family to return. This part is tense and well-acted, and resolved in a heart-wrenching way that entirely fits the theme of the movie. There's even a little twist afterward, hearkening back to the opening of the film, that brings things full circle and wraps them up.

Overall I have to say this is an excellent low-key "feud movie," and give it a thumbs up, with four stars out of five.