Review of Blue Ruin (2014) by Nathan M — 25 Jul 2014

A revenge thriller that's less about the violence, and more about what violence does to a person. Blue Ruin is a movie that is full of ideas, and director Jeremy Saulnier utilizes every moment of its short run time to follow through on each idea. With a powerful performance from Macon Blair, Saulnier is able to portray a picture of what violence does to the soul of a person, and how revenge never really heals anything, it just makes things worse.

As we watch Blair give a (mostly) wordless performance, we see the pain and the torment that an act of violence has on a person. Even when he inflicts violence on the person responsible, which is one of the best scenes in the film, we can see the pain in his eyes. Blair was the perfect person for this role, and he earns his screen time in every moment of the film.

Saulnier chooses not to retread some of the same old revenge-thriller ground talking about how revenge never satisfies, instead he wants to talk about how violence warps our perception. Blair's character is so convinced that he has killed the man responsible for his parent's murder that he's unwilling to listen to what might be the truth. One thing I love about Saulnier's direction is that he never lets the audience know the truth either. It's not the point.

The point is that even the audience wants to see this family pay for their crimes, even if they never committed them. Blue Ruin is about the senseless cycle of violence. It doesn't rely on reason, in fact, it often flies in the face of it. It isn't rewarding or satisfying, it's horrifying, and that's how it's portrayed on screen. I look forward to see Saulnier and Blair's future projects.