Vengeance Is Mine

The person with the better weapon and the element of surprise, gets to tell the truth. Because they have the power, and the truth hurts like a broken bone. In the underworld of London, only the possibility of revenge and the telling of such truths stir an impoverished loner named Harry. It likewise motivates his intended target. In a brutal spree, Harry struggles to gain the upper hand over his adversary. In this insightful, vicious and unconventional tale, there are surprising twists and turns. Harry learns some uncommon and profound good sense. Capable acting, an enthralling story and intriguing sights and sounds, kept me at the edge of my seat.

The Europeans have a knack of gripping you in films about lonely disconnected characters who are suffering some sort of crisis who then emerge from ashes of some sort of grief and then seek revenge and it usually takes place slowly and VISUALLY and this is a fine example of that.

Telling a story in pictures seems to be something American film makers have forgotten, they are riddled with tons and tons of dialogue, Irving the explainer film making.

In this film you are given the info and you put the pieces together yourself, treating the audience with respect in that they have some intelligence.

The whole dream thing did occur to me but I continued watching, that shot of the beach at the end could be heaven or it could be just a shot of a beach.

Nothing better than to watch a movie that involves you in the watching experience without the use of words, its trance like. You are engrossed in the action and the characters without hearing them say what they are thinking or feeling, thats a real skill so kudos to this team.

I see that there is a discussion going on wether its dream or not, I have to say it did niggle me a tad when I was watching it thinking the same thing and to see other people are saying its a dream makes me think, BUT wether its a dream or not its still a clever little movie.

A fantastic revenge thriller that uses literally every penny of its micro budget perfectly, as throughout this looks visually as well put together as any other multi million dollar Hollywood production. The way it unravels is nothing other than completely gripping as it is a fine example of pure unencumbered story telling that shows the audience the unfolding evens a lot more than it tells them. Performance wise its top of the line, with Con O'Neill giving one of the most timid, yet still perfectly relatable killer performances, but is the smart direction that sets itself apart as it's faultlessly sharp and immensely effective. A gritty must see that is high brow genre movie.

Harry is a loner and, to anyone who would perceive him, a total and utter failure on the bottom rung on society. Living and working in a church as a handyman and cleaner, he occupies his time by reading The Count of Monte Cristo and contemplating suicide in all sort of gruesome ways, throw in visions of his wife an daughter runner in a getaway car by some vicious thieves, you have man at the lowest ebb of his life. Then a private detective he hired brings him news that shakes him from his life ending low. He has been so badly wronged in the past that his life derailed that this is light at tend of the tunnel. The authors of his downfall have now been found. He makes a decision to seek vengeance.

This means having to buy a gun and ammunition, stalking the killers and attacking them although he is completely untrained and totally out of shape an entering a world he does not belong in. Once in this world he sets in motion a chain of events that will build up its own momentum, essentially driven by vengeance, lost love and pure emotion.

Harry is played by Con O'Neill, an outstanding actor. He excels as the frightened, yet driven man, who is essentially a good person, who has been forced into the role of vigilante avenger. He is able to convey so much tormented emotion in his facial expressions and the use of his eyes that his performance on its own would make this a 5 star film. All of the supporting actors are also excellent, one of the villains played bt Anton Saunders is skin tinglingly scary, but O'Neills performance just dwarfs all around him.

This is edge of seat stuff, with brutal violence - intentionally gratuitous, it is the messy sort and sometimes glammed up which at first I thought was strange but then as I watched this over the top violence that SOMETIMES occurred I realised that the film maker was telling us something , THIS IS EITHER A DREAM OR REAL OR BOTH, in that Harry is perhaps committing these acts and exaggerating them in his mind OR in that it is his final thoughts as he lies dying in his room in the church when he tries to commit suicide with a knife strapped to a stool.

The movie has a brooding quality that makes the whole thing have a kind of intense effervescence that just grabs you and takes you along for the ride - and that means the whole journey. I was blown away by this, small film. This is a master class in how to make a thriller. I can not recommend highly enough.