What if you were an international star who’d had a supporting role in two of the biggest franchises of all time, then you went on to deliver the best performance of your career in a tough, tiny British drama, and hardly anybody noticed? Chances are, Orlando Bloom has been asking himself some version of that question for the last three years.
That’s how long it’s been since he played Malky, a lapsed Catholic tormented by childhood sexual abuse, in “Retaliation,” a remarkably nuanced alternative to the grudge-bearing revenge genre from a pair of first-time feature directors, siblings Ludwig and Paul Shammasian. “Retaliation” was virtually overlooked when it premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival back in 2017, landing distribution in a few foreign countries (presumably on the basis of Bloom’s involvement), only to surface now as one of the many pandemic releases so micro, they may as well not exist.
That’s how long it’s been since he played Malky, a lapsed Catholic tormented by childhood sexual abuse, in “Retaliation,” a remarkably nuanced alternative to the grudge-bearing revenge genre from a pair of first-time feature directors, siblings Ludwig and Paul Shammasian. “Retaliation” was virtually overlooked when it premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival back in 2017, landing distribution in a few foreign countries (presumably on the basis of Bloom’s involvement), only to surface now as one of the many pandemic releases so micro, they may as well not exist.
- 7/24/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
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