Blue Ruin

Starring: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb
Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A homeless man (Macon Blair) returns to his hometown to enact vengeance on the man who murdered his father. His act of violence creates unintended consequences that threaten his family.

Review:

Tim: One of my regrets is that I will never have enough time to see all the movies I should see each calendar year. Nowadays, somewhere around 650 feature films come out each year. There's no way I can see all of them. My goal is always to see at least 100. That means there's tons of worthwhile movies that escape me each and every year. A film like Blue Ruin is one that's easy to overlook. There's no recognizable movie stars. The budget is miniscule. It didn't get nominated for Academy Awards. It might not be a great movie, but director Jeremy Saulnier and the cast did manage to tell a strong story with limited resources. I'm glad I heard about this film and sat down to watch it.

This is an independent film, so it doesn't follow the typical Hollywood script (thankfully). The main character says very little and he certainly doesn't have a particular set of skills. This is a revenge tale with a protagonist who knows nothing about revenge. That led it a very realistic quality. I like that Saulnier gave us quite a few quiet moments. While there is worthwhile dialogue, long stretches of the film featured no spoken words. Saulnier uses this possible limitation to tell a surprisingly powerful story.

I was impressed with how much was conveyed without a bunch of worthless exposition. The story slowly unfolds, piece by piece falling into place until we learn the whole truth. The story is straightforward but interesting. A man is surprised to learn when his father's killer is released from prison. He decides to seek revenge. Now, most films would use this as the entire story- will he kill him or not? Blue Ruin dispenses with this aspect quickly. Getting revenge isn't the end of the story, it's the beginning. What starts out as a solitary act of vengeance quickly becomes a family affair. I enjoyed seeing our protagonist out of his element, slowly realizing how badly the situation is escalating.

Macon Blair is very good in the lead role. It might not have been a truly great performance, but it's a solid, enjoyable one. He tells a great deal through his facial expressions and even though he doesn't say a whole lot, I felt very connected to his character. I understood him. That's hard to pull off when the dialogue is limited. Blair is really the main attraction here. There's a few worthwhile supporting roles- Amy Hargreaves has a nice couple of scenes as his sister, and Devin Ratray (the most recognizable member of the cast) steals a few scenes. Really, though, this film is all about Blair. I hope to see more of him in the future.

While I did enjoy Blue Ruin, I might not have loved it as much as many of the critics who reviewed it. There were a few moments that dragged on a bit too long. When you don't have much dialogue, you need every action and scene to still be compelling. While 90% of them were, about 10% felt too long and dull and my attention wavered a bit. I also wish there was a bit more of an emotional connection with Blair's character. I liked him and wanted him to succeed, but I never felt any kind of deep emotional bond with him. I also didn't hate any of his enemies. Maybe that's the point, because life is mostly shades of grey, not black and white, but when he got revenge on certain people, I never felt that sense of morbid joy that should come from the bad guys getting their comeuppance. I would have liked the movie more with some of that.

Saulnier pulled off a strong movie in Blue Ruin, which is only his second feature film. I saw so many moments of brilliance scattered throughout this film. While there's not enough here to launch the film into greatness. Even still, this is an impressively crafted film. Saulnier is a director to keep an eye on.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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