If you roll past one event, you’ll find an engaging ride
Revenge
(out of four) Starring Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz. Directed by Coralie Fargeat. Opens Friday at Cineplex YongeDundas, on iTunes and via On Demand. 108 minutes. R French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat has demonstrated that revenge is sometimes a dish best served piping hot.
The film is going to strain your suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. But if you can get past one particular event, you’re going to find Revenge a madcap, satisfying thrill ride.
The story opens with the arrival by helicopter of handsome Richard (Kevin Janssens) and Jen at a secluded luxury home in a semi-tropical locale. At first, Richard seems like a nice fellow, very much devoted to his beautiful mistress even as he talks lovingly with his wife long distance, which makes him a bit of a cad. Then two of Richard’s hunting buddies show up for their annual big-game shoot a day early and things go awry.
When Richard leaves the luxury pad for several hours, he leaves Jen at the mercy of his friend Stan (Vincent Colombe) who taunts her before raping her violently. The third guy, Dimitri, knows what’s going on but doesn’t intervene.
But Jen gets an unpleasant surprise when she realizes Richard isn’t going to defend her honour. Au contraire, and here’s the tough part: accepting that Jen, whom Richard pushes off a cliff, is able to rally from a near-fatal injury and exact revenge on the trio who begin to hunt her like an animal when they realize she’s not dead.
The best advice: just roll with it.
Cinematographer Robrecht Heyvaert does a fine job of injecting menace into the story in little moments and small touches, like a partly eaten apple and the severe, forbidding landscape. Fargeat does a similarly fine job of stoking the tension as Jen faces off against three well-armed misogynists.
Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz makes a believable transformation from a naive young woman with dreams of Hollywood to a fierce warrior bent on survival and retribution. Colombe is great as the sleazy Stan and Kevin Janssens is also very good as Richard, whose affable exterior and good looks mask a genuine monster.
If you can get past that one thing, Revenge delivers a pulsepounding thrill ride featuring an engaging heroine that’s sure to please.