VENGEANCE: A LOVE STORY
US, 2017, 99 minutes, Colour.
Nicolas Cage, Anna Hutchison, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Deborah Kara Unger, Don Johnson, Charlene Tilton.
Directed by Johnny Martin.
The title of this film sounds like an oxymoron. However, it is based on a novel by noted author, Joyce Carol Oates.
This is one of the many films that Nicolas Cage made in these years, several a year, generally thrillers of this kind. This time he portrays a veteran from the Gulf War, a policeman working around Niagara Falls, the film opening with his stalking a criminal and his partner being killed.
Later, in a bar, he encounters a very forward young woman. She is described as a widow with a young daughter. Later, at a party, with a lot of drink, she leaves her current boyfriend and decides to walk home with her daughter. On the way, she is accosted by a group of men and she is raped by them. The policeman has followed, rescues the little girl, calls the ambulance and the woman is taken to hospital in a coma.
The men are found and arrested. They are redneck types, arrogant in their manner, employing a suave lawyer, played by Don Johnson, supported by their fiercely redneck mother and their more passive father. In the court hearings, the blame is laid on the woman being provocative and the men innocent.
This has dire effect on the woman, needless to say. The men are supremely confident in court, the judge unfavourable to the woman, those in the court, especially the mother (who, surprisingly, has sought the advice of a priest who has put her on to their lawyer).
The film then moves into vigilante mode with the policeman going after each of the men, killing them but supplying framework that blames them, forcing one to kill himself, confronting one on the edge of Niagara Falls and two of the men going over the Falls and an assumption made that they have disappeared.
While the criminals a loathsome, the woman and her daughter victims, there is a questionable issue of vigilantiesm.
1. The title? Expectations? Based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, her reputation?
2. The career of Nicolas Cage, many films a year, violent thrillers? This film in that tradition? Beyond the traditional not?
3. The introduction to John? The credit sequences in the background of crime and investigation? Niagara Falls? John and his partner, the discussions, waiting, the pursuit of the criminal, the crashes, the partner being shot? The effect on John? The revelation of his background, service, Gulf War, contributions to the police force?
4. The aftermath, John in the bar, seeing Teena, her dress and manner, the music and dancing, talking to him at the bar? The information about her husband dining and so, the effect on, her daughter? The conversation, the phone number? The bond between the two?
5. Teena, her relationship with her daughter, her age? Living with Teena’s mother? Strong minded woman? The party, the drinking, the music and dancing, the kids on the roof, tender shouting for Bethie to come down, Bethie and her reaction? The reconciliation? The boyfriend offering to walk them home, the short walk, mother and daughter, the encounter with the meaning, drunken, brutal, the gang rape, leaving her injured, Bethie and the escape, watching, walking the road, John picking her up? Teena taken to hospital, coma? Her mother coming to the hospital? Bethie and her injuries? John and his concern?
6. Legal issues, the lawyer, preparing Teena for the court hearing? Agnes and his surliness? The demands?
7. The family, the men, their denials, the mother and father and their two sons, the priests coming to give them advice about a lawyer?
8. Kirkpatrick, well-dressed, successful, the touch of the smug? His explanation of the details, the costs, the mother wanting the case, more digging mortgaging the house?
9. The hearing, the attitude of the judge, overruling the objections of Teena’s lawyer, female and black? The friendship with Kirkpatrick? The witnesses, John and his testimony, Teena and identifying the men? Her breakdown? Kirkpatrick, the plausibility of an alternate scenario with the men as innocent and Teena as the aggressor?
10. Agnes, refusing to help the lawyer? Teena and the preparation for the case? Jury trial? The lawyer not having enough time?
11. The lawyer meeting with Kirkpatrick, his offer of a deal?
12. The member of the gang in the bar, the betting on the fight, the challenge to Teena’s boyfriend? John sitting at a table, observing? Going out of the bar, the member of the gang and his violence, the knife, John shooting him? The internal affairs hearing, John with his plausible explanation?
13. The men at the court hearing, well-dressed, yet self-satisfied, sneering? The mother and her aggression? The condemnation of Teena?
14. The two sons, the phone call, going to the falls, the confrontation with John? Shooting them, kicking them over the side? The assumption that they had fled to Canada?
15. Teena, recovering, with her mother, with Bessie, despair, going to the falls, John saving her, urging her to consider her daughter?
16. The final rapist, John lowering him to the appointment, getting to him to write the suicide note, shooting him?
17. The collapse of the case, the mother and her aggressive speech to the press? Kirkpatrick and his meeting up with John, knowing the truth, the interaction? Bethie coming to
the fence, farewelling John, the glimpse of Teena? His going to his next assignment?
18. Audience response to legal injustice, retribution, the violent vigilante?
