A tale that stays for a long time
She might have only made four feature films in nearly two decades, but each of Lynne Ramsay’s efforts have been memorable. Starting with 1999’s Ratcatcher, the Scottish director has crafted a series of challenging movies about fractured lives and tortured souls, which don’t follow a typical narrative path. However, they are tales that stay with you a long time after you’ve finished watching them.
Anyone who has seen 2002’s Morvern Callar or 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Like those two, her latest drama, You Were Never Really Here (R16, screening in select cinemas, after proving to be one of the most talked-about titles at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival), is based on a book. Jonathan Ames’ 2013 novella of the same name focuses on Joe (Joaquin Phoenix), a traumatised former FBI agent and marine.
A broken man teetering on the edge of total collapse, the only things keeping him going are his mother and his ‘‘work’’. His work is rescuing young women who have been kidnapped and forced into the sex trade. But when his latest contract for a corrupt US senator twists in a new direction, Joe finds all those still dear to him under threat and retaliatory action required. At the same time, he forms an unlikely bond with the senator’s daughter Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov).
If you’re thinking this has shades of Man of Fire, The Professional, John Wick or most of the movies featuring Liam Neeson in the past decade, think again. This is a drama that opens with Phoenix’s head in a plastic bag, features a haunting dissonant soundtrack by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and boasts a decent dose of visceral and disturbing imagery (and that’s not including Phoenix singing along to Charlene’s I’ve Never Been to Me).
Likewise, there are no pithy comebacks and witty sendoffs. Phoenix spends most of the movie being miserable and contemplating ways to end that torment (think a darker version of Mel Gibson’s Riggs in the original Lethal Weapon) and yet it’s a performance you can’t look away from.
Beside him, Samsonov (Wonderstruck) marks herself out as a young performer to watch, her character evoking memories of Natalie Portman’s star-making turn in the aforementioned The Professional.