Vengeance Is Mine

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.

Vengeance is Mine makes it look so simple and effortless. Maybe it's because it is in fact simple and effortless. Con O'Neill the lead looks like a blend of a lawyer and an accountant and he is an inept protagonist that the film explores in all its consequences that other movies skip with an archetype that's usually hugely muscled and wielding machine guns on both arms.

It's subversive and the ending pays off with a gorgeous finale. While some would get tired of the spare and simple plot, it allows the stakes to rise in a true way and the only thing that is missing is a little more juice on all the cast of characters as the film chooses to not speak unless it really has to which I actually liked. However, the authentic leads acting wins you over where the writing is deliberately minimal.

Vengeance is Mine reminds me why I have always loved looking for more obscure and smart indie cinema.

An Indie Film isn't just a movie which is thought of as a limited budgeted venture without big shot studios at its helm. When one hears the term "Indie" one is instantaneously thrown off course. Watch Vengeance is Mine and it will forever change the way one perceives Indies.

Let me throw a few titles at you. THE DESCENT, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, MEMENTO, THE PASSION OF THE Christ, MEAN STREETS & THE TERMINATOR are some of the most stringent budgeted productions seen in the past decades. Vengeance is Mine does not have an A-List director to its name as some of the titles mentioned above. Instead The director can be considered an amateur with comparison to the Coens, Scorsese or Cameron. But still Vengeance is Mine is one of the most absurdly intense and realistic movies of 2021. Slow off the blocks Vengeance is Mine progresses at a slow pace focusing on the mysterious growth of the troubled Harry who works in a ancient church in London who embarks on a journey of revenge when he is totally ill wiped for it. What happens to a man who holds another man at gunpoint for the first time? He hesitates, he doubts himself, he is afraid of the consequences and most of all he himself is afraid of the situation. This all what Vengeance is Mine is at its core eventually? I for one think so. Vengeance is Mine gripped me from the very start. Its sparse in dialogue which works positively since this leaves plenty of room for the audience thoughts and musings. Each nook is fine tuned to extract the scenes maximum potential within his strained budget. When Harry bleeds that's all that happens; he bleeds. When Harry cries that's all that happens; Harry cries. Unlike Colin Farrell or Tom Hanks in PHONEBOOTH or CASTAWAY there isn't much taking place in the backdrop. There is no police squad, there is no island. Instead its always back seat of a car, a broken chair, a wall or a field. Vengeance is Mine is a thriller that lets of its steam cautiously but certainly. It's like walking the plank.

All the way from across the pond comes a brutal and bloody piece of modern filmmaking.

The lead, Con O'Neill is totally flawless. He portrays A REAL GUY, not an unbelievably clever, or tough cliché. He does not give you anything that the character wouldn't do. This quality of acting is across the whole board. The casting of the movie is dead-on.

This is an intense, refreshingly ORIGINAL tough ride, from start to finish. You are right there with the lead, going through what he is going through, knowing what he knows, and not knowing what he doesn't know...

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.