Review of Blue Ruin (2014) by Thomas W — 07 Jun 2014

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, directed by Jeremy Saulnier, I expected it to be something like the quite underrated British gothic revenge movie 'Dead Mans Shoes', which featured a typically righteous anti-hero: A lonely man who haunts the moors and picks out his enemies with perverse relish, an expert hand and a ruthless expression. I was quite wrong; The hero of this movie is a million miles away from that archetype. He is more emotional than cold-blooded, more incompetent than dangerous, and more frightened than angry. Furthermore, this is far from a typical revenge movie.

On a technical level the movie is terrific. Saulnier has a crisp and clear visual sense and a sharp eye for detail. The opening act is particularly brilliant in how it introduces the lead character and provokes questions about his past. The camera draws in on a shaggy-bearded character who is taking a bath in what seems to be his own home. All of a sudden a noise stirs from downstairs, and from his brief look of panic we immediately realize that this man is in fact a homeless squatter. In early scenes we follow this mystery man scavenge around the neighbourhood, bleary-eyed and forlorn, until he is at last solicited and brought in for questioning by a policewoman. The woman explains to Dwight(Macon Blair) that a prisoner is about to be released, a prisoner who is evidently linked with Dwight and his troubled past, the nature of which remains vague. With minimum dialogue the opening 20 minutes divulges just the right amount of information and sets the lead character upon his path of retribution beautifully.

In a stunning debut performance Macon Blair is utterly convincing as a frightened, wounded creature that has made the disastrous mistake of seeking vengeance on those who have wronged him. When I saw the trailer I wondered why an actor with such a harmless, dog-eyed expression was chosen to play the anti-hero of a revenge flick. Of course, my initial expectancies for this movie proved quite inaccurate. Blair perfectly conveys the characters feral terror and timid indecision. Beyond the stunning debut from Blair, the direction of Jeremy Saulnier is supremely confident. His work here has been compared stylistically and atmospherically to that of the Coen brothers, but I was actually more reminded of David Cronenberg's grissly gems 'A History of Violence' and 'Eastern Promises.' As with Cronenberg, Saulnier has something to say about the nature of violence and its ugly consequences.

The grisly violence is not without a hefty dollop of black humour, often derived from the lead character's bungling incompetence as an assassin. However, the movie also has a wickedly satirical edge, frequently poking fun at genre movie tropes. Take one scene where the lead character attempts, Rambo-style, to remove an arrow (Yes! There are arrows in this movie!) from his leg. Unable to endure the pain, Dwight ends up checking himself into hospital before passing out from loss of blood. Revenge has never been so inglorious.

To reinforce my earlier point, the heroes or anti-heroes from genre revenge flicks are usually made of much tougher stuff than Dwight. I'm speaking of characters like Richard(Dead Man's Shoes) and The Bride(Kill Bill). These characters are ruthless beings who know how to get things done. And we root for them, not because we believe they are moral paragons but because they act as a spokesperson for some dark corner within us. Grand purveyors of harsh justice, they mercilessly kill characters who we generally don't like, which can make for thrilling entertainment. Yet here is a movie which refuses to pander or to satisfy the revenge fantasies of the audience. Blue Ruin is about as anti-revenge as a revenge movie can be. It's quite a fascinating watch.