The G

Got to see this movie randomly.

To be honest, I was skeptical when I saw the poster and read the synopsis. Still, I thought I'd give it a shot, I like looking for gems.

The overall pace is slow and there is not much action going on. It's a thriller, but most gets resolved in talking. There's a lot of angry talking with a straight face if you know what I mean, this movie is built upon that. I do not consider this to be a drawback however, these movies are good if your mood is right. And I was in the right mood.

It turned out to be a good movie. Not perfect. The pace is shifting, characters seem to be poorly introduced and there are places where its really hard to follow who did what.

Considering all the mentioned flaws, I still really liked the movie.

First of all, the subject is no joke, this nursing home scam is a real thing and people who engage in this stuff must be put to justice as soon as possible, this must stop.

Secondly, I really liked the characters, they do feel human and we get to see clearly how everyone is flawed and yet finds his own way to maintain, I guess that's how you discover a real character. The lead is strong.

This movie is grim, I really liked that, it's serious and it earns its respect.

The drama is okay, acceptable, its honest, but it could've been much deeper. I guess, this is a part where a lot could've been improved for this movie to become a real gem. An opportunity was lost here, unfortunately.

The plot... I mean it's nothing new and this type of plot has obvious drawbacks, but this movie has served it quite well in my opinion. It was well executed. Someone has put a thought in it and I can tell it was someone who has some sense.

This is actually great movie. I will recommend it to my friends.

The G is an intentionally miserable revenge film that showcases some of the most despicable villains of recent memory because of how they manipulate the legal system to take everything from the elderly. When the revenge finally comes it's very satisfying and suitably unflinching but the film saves it for the very end making it a bit of a slog even at a relatively short 106 minutes. Luckily, it has the right actress to keep it going until then.

Dale Dickey is great in a central performance holding everything together. She shows hints of a darker past early on and seeing her husband get mistreated is painful to watch, making her eventual revenge all the more satisfying when she shows no mercy. Bruce Ramsay as the main villain and his generically evil henchmen are the kind of bad guys who are very easy to hate thanks to how irredeemable their scheme makes them.

Karl R. Hearne's direction is very conventional in a way that rarely draws attention to itself. It looks suitably bleak, creating a strong sense of unease and confusion at the beginning when the house eviction happens with no warning. It only escalates further when they're in the care home since there's minimal contact with the outside world and the information that's slowly revealed makes their situation more horrifying.

The scores tell you there's a normal distribution around 6 or 7 but then an anomaly of 10s for those discerning viewers. It's in a genre of amateur mobster but there are so many real characters and unpredictable twists and turns that set it apart from the masses. The supporting characters are complex in their combinations of attributes, not one dimensional or just incompetent or untrustworthy. The story has intertwining and overlapping paths that confuse and confound all the participants. The backstory is of a typical American modern reality of gangster capitalism backed up by the law and the courts, we can expect a growth in this type of industry with the second Trump presidency, which might at least as a byproduct produce some more angry films like this.

From the look of the posters, this ought to be a film about a Polish gangster! Instead, it's about the curmudgeonly, vodka-swilling, "Ann" (Dale Dickey). It's really only her grand-daughter "Emma" (Romane Denis) who takes any interest in her as she goes through life with her incapacitated husband "Chip". Asleep one night, their home is invaded by people armed with a court order that puts them into a legally binding guardianship arrangement. This basically says that they are incapable of managing their own affairs and have to have someone else take control. Nobody asked anyone to do this, nor did the couple know of the court proceedings supporting it. It was all down to a dodgy doctor on the payroll of "Rivera" (Bruce Ramsay) who had his eye on their condo and their savings. Now locked inside their new apartment, she is determined to get out - especially as their new hosts can prove quite violent when it comes to making sure that they have squeezed out every penny the couple have. What "Rivera" doesn't count on, though, is that "G" has a bit of an history when it comes to looking after herself. What follows next is all a bit procedural and though Dickey is clearly having some bad-ass fun, the main thrust of the story is really the outrageous scenario that it represents: that some states in the US allow people to be summarily removed from their homes, and from control of their assets, by anonymous third parties fuelled by greed and palm-greasing. It's worth a watch, but the television will do fine.

The G is a well made film and much better than most low budget revenge flicks. Dale Dickey is great and perfectly cast. The injustice she and her husband go through sets the story up nicely. There are some pacing issues. A few sections feel padded out to stretch the run time to 100 minutes when really 90 minutes would have been more than enough. The action sequences are well handled. I would have given this film an 8 or a 9 but the final showdown was a little rushed. I was waiting for the G to pull the rug out from under the main villain's feet, but then something major happened off screen that was explained with a quick throwaway line. I felt like I'd been cheated out of a really tense final showdown that the film had been building up to.

This film is definitely worth a watch though, especially if you are a fan of revenge movies.