You Were Never Really Here ** (2017, Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Judith Roberts, Alessandro Nivola, Alex Manette, John Doman) – Movie Review 

A hardly recognisable Joaquin Phoenix acts with his bushy, going-white beard (think Brian Blessed) as hard man Joe, who is asked to retrieve – with violence – a senator’s daughter (Ekaterina Samsonov) from the house of underage prostitutes where she’s been abducted.

Joe goes out and buys a $16 hammer, and an onslaught of terrible death and violence follows in writer-director Lynne Ramsay’s grim and gruelling noir-style movie.  Do we feel we’ve seen this story on screen before? Were they thinking Taxi Driver? On the plus side, Ramsay does keep up a strong level of shocks and tension and visual invention in this slow-burning psychological revenge thriller. Ramsay bases her screenplay on a novel by Jonathan Ames.

However, it has its frustrations throughout, with problems with pacing, clarity and characterisations. But it is most frustrating that it ends up in the wrong place with a trick ending and then an unsatisfying conclusion. As a thriller, it is no fun at all. It feels quite a bit too extreme for comfort or entertainment, but then that must be the point. But, then again, if a thriller isn’t entertaining, what is the point? I guess there are people who will admire it, but who would actually like it?

It’s a shame they didn’t get Armie Hammer to play the role of the hammer man, but that’s a cheap shot. Perhaps surprisingly, a beefy-looking Phoenix is credibly tough, though, in a generally credible performance. And, luckily, he is the whole film.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review 

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