** No specific spoilers, but I discuss the narrative shape, and hint at some plot elements.** This film comes on as a psychological suspenseful mood-piece, but delivers all too much dark mood and not enough psychological insight. I was rooting for Red Road for a while-I liked the dread and creepy voyeurism (in a rough part of Glasgow). But I felt the film, despite its earnest attempt to deal with a woman's grief, was fairly banal. And, more importantly, it does not integrate the two biggest plot elements thematically.
The film doles out small bits of information about why Jackie is disturbed and begins to track Clyde, a recently-released criminal, and to misuse some of her powers as a tracker. This works well for a while, but then gets a bit tedious.
Disappointingly, the use of surveillance is not united with any larger thematic concern. For a film which begins steeped in the technology of watching and recording--even quotidian doings come to seem ominous-the surveillance aspect is part of entirely personal plot, with very little wider cultural implications. This may be because the UK has more surveillance than the U.S., so the filmmaker was simply using it as a given, whereas in the US it would generate more societal questions (though the use of cameras is surely growing in the US).
The other big thematic problem is why Jackie chooses her particular form of revenge. It's an extremely provocative choice, but it's not tied to what happened in the past. Again, her personal reasons (her loneliness, her revulsion/attraction to a dangerous but compelling guy) are interesting, but her technique is a culturally relevant issue which the film has nothing to say about.
As Clyde, Tony Curran has haunting moments. His physicality, even the way he walks, is a memorable portrait of a man caught between studly swagger, haunted emptiness and attempted recovery. As Jackie, Kate Dickie has a tougher task, playing the repressed pain but hinting at someone capable of inflicting revenge. But she's good too.
In the end, though, it was not enough for me to like this film. The movie feels rather small, and a not-too-original spin on other films which have dealt with similar matters.
The film doles out small bits of information about why Jackie is disturbed and begins to track Clyde, a recently-released criminal, and to misuse some of her powers as a tracker. This works well for a while, but then gets a bit tedious.
Disappointingly, the use of surveillance is not united with any larger thematic concern. For a film which begins steeped in the technology of watching and recording--even quotidian doings come to seem ominous-the surveillance aspect is part of entirely personal plot, with very little wider cultural implications. This may be because the UK has more surveillance than the U.S., so the filmmaker was simply using it as a given, whereas in the US it would generate more societal questions (though the use of cameras is surely growing in the US).
The other big thematic problem is why Jackie chooses her particular form of revenge. It's an extremely provocative choice, but it's not tied to what happened in the past. Again, her personal reasons (her loneliness, her revulsion/attraction to a dangerous but compelling guy) are interesting, but her technique is a culturally relevant issue which the film has nothing to say about.
As Clyde, Tony Curran has haunting moments. His physicality, even the way he walks, is a memorable portrait of a man caught between studly swagger, haunted emptiness and attempted recovery. As Jackie, Kate Dickie has a tougher task, playing the repressed pain but hinting at someone capable of inflicting revenge. But she's good too.
In the end, though, it was not enough for me to like this film. The movie feels rather small, and a not-too-original spin on other films which have dealt with similar matters.