Review of Red Road (2006) by Jonathan B — 10 Jun 2009

A great Glasgow set thriller with noir elements and nods to Hitchcock's Rear Window. It's also heavily influenced by the Dogme style of film-making - it breaks far too many of the rigid 'anti-cinematic' rules of that style of film-making to be called a true Dogme film. Thank God! It's far too cinematic for that! But, then again, maybe that is the whole point of the Dogme rulebook - so that film-makers can brake those rules! To challenge them even and make them less complacent and lazy? (take away the tools and imagination becomes a greater force). I hope so. Otherwise, why bother??

I knew very little about Red Road before I saw it. It's the best way to come to the majority of cinema but sometimes it's more important than others. Here we have a story that teases us continually. It constantly challenges our sympathies and attention - we never fully know the protagonists' back story till close to the end. We are given clues and hints of course, which get more obvious as we watch. But often, they feel more like red herrings. It's this ambiguity that enriches the tension - who is the villain here? Why is this woman so interested in this ex-con. What was his crime and her involvement. Is he a villain? Is she a victim? It's a very untypical thriller but a thriller it is. The tension is almost unbearable at times.

Initially we assume he is the villain and she is maybe his potential victim. And she knows him. What did he do? It must have been something horrible and unspeakable. He looks like a pervert! He is carnal and almost animalistic. But is he? Maybe this is only how she sees him. Was she, in some way, complicit in a crime even? After all, people who should be close to her are not. They are, in fact, estranged from her and seem even hostile to her. The ambiguity is what creates a lot of the tension here. In a straight-forward suspense thriller we are told early on of the unspeakable horrors the villain has committed and the thought of him doing so again is where the tension comes from. Here, we don't have that luxury so the ambiguity of it's protagonists actions constantly challenge our empathy. We are never aware of what is going to happen next because we don't really know what they are thinking. We can only guess. It's a trick that was used in 'Lust, Caution' but here, it's more successful. The ending, also, is certainly not as ambiguous as Ang Lee's pic.

The film's centre piece, where the protagonist's 'clash' (?) had me literally holding my breath - it's a bold and exciting sequence that is utterly draining (did Ang Lee see this film before he made Lust, Caution??). It's not until the end of the film that you realise the full mental torture at the heart of the matter.

On the surface, Red Road is a story of revenge with large doses of voyeurism - just as our heroine exploits her job's privilege and becomes a voyeur, so do we, the audience (as Hitch was always telling us!) become peepers. As the emotional core of the two main protagonists is gradually and quite brutally laid bare before us, we become more unnerved and uncomfortable and wonder how much we really should be seeing? Such is the vulnerability exposed.

Ultimately though, on a deeper level, it's a quite profound story of forgiveness and all-consuming guilt, atonement and redemption. Letting go.