Blue Ruin
Studio: Radius-TWC
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier
Apr 25, 2014
Web Exclusive
After hearing that the man who murdered his parents has been released from prison, Dwight Evans abandons his pitiful life as a beach bum and returns to his hometown, reigniting a violent feud that had begun decades earlier.
Somewhat unusually for a revenge film, Blue Ruin is an exercise in restraint. Its protagonist, Dwight Evans, has spent much of his life homeless and deeply depressed, making him ill-suited to the task of taking on a heavily-armed backwoods crime family. While always desperate, his actions remain measured and sensible. He is aware of his limits, both physically and mentally. When his attempts to stitch up a wound prove too gruesome and painful, he goes to a hospital. It’s not the flashiest or the most badass choice, but it’s sensible and effective. This, along with numerous other mundane, but highly specific moments, is what sets the film apart from the wave of post-Taken revenge thrillers.
The film’s restraint begins with director—and writer, and cinematographer—Jeremy Saulnier, who gives the film a natural, realistic tone without ever making it feel loose or improvisational. Simple character beats and plot points are given room to breath, keeping the narrative direct and purposeful, but allowing the audience to feel the full weight of its implications and consequences. The everyday suburbs and wilderness of Virginia come to life as places of rustic beauty and grim reality. Even the action and suspense sequences proceed with a minimalist calm that makes the violence all the more shocking.
As with all intelligent revenge films, Blue Ruin makes the case that vengeance is as destructive toward those meting it out as it is to the intended targets. With this in mind, Macon Blair’s contributions to the film cannot be overstated. As the downtrodden, desperate Dwight, Blair maintains a constant state of fear and pain as a means to keep his exhausted resignation at bay. While his dialogue is minimal, as one may expect from the genre’s long history of taciturn avengers, Blair instead gives the viewer the impression that this is a man for whom the basics of social interaction are a distant memory. Any filmmaker or actor would be taking a great risk in making their protagonist as pitiable and ineffectual as Dwight Evans, but Saulnier and Blair create a dichotomy between his warm, welcoming face and his tired, pained eyes that is impossible to resist.
Author rating: 8.5/10
Average reader rating: 10/10
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