I at first reserved comment on this film, sat with it as it settled in and began to resonate.
Red Road is a challenging film on several levels. It requires us to pay attention; it doesn't hit us on the head with flashbacks or expository "on the nose" dialog. Instead the script is frugal, casually exacting, and the discovery is in the subtext rather than "what's on screen".
When we first meet Jackie, all we see is a head and shoulders, hands manipulating the CCTV cameras so she can get a better look at the nefarious goings on she is trained to know what's worth looking at and what she can let go.
Jackie remains rather disembodied throughout much of the film - even during sex it seems she's not really connected to anything below her neck, including her heart. She's passive, running away from even the slightest emotional exchange.
Except for Clyde. Clyde changes everything. She loses perspective and we follow along with her, despising Clyde because she does. Everything he does looks vaguely criminal because we see him through Jackie's tainted eyes.
But again we are challenged to see Clyde (and other characters) as layered individuals. The waste-nothing script gives us insight into their motivations sure, it could have had some sort of perversion or "twisty" ending, but the point really is that sometimes what looks strange and frightening on the surface is actually benign and familiar on a deeper, more personal level.
A lot has been said here about the sex scene, which is pretty explicit, although only one scene. But it is the pivotal scene in the film. In order to insinuate herself into Clyde's world, she has to engage with him in a way she's been avoiding with anyone. But she ends up letting go completely, more than she "has" to. And in doing so she not only accesses her pain and anger, but remembers her body and its need for nurturing, remembers her heart and her compassion, and begins to see Clyde in three dimensions for the first time. As do we.
I did have a problem with the police aspect of it, because here in the states what Jackie put into motion would not have been stopped just because she decided not to press the issue.
The success of a quiet story like Red Road, sans neon "American-style" exposition, exists largely in the way the characters are brought to us by the actors. Kate Dickie and Tony Curran are excellent, and it's nice to see the underrated Mr. Curran in a lead role, and not invisible, quickly dead or, uh, undead.
Red Road is a challenging film on several levels. It requires us to pay attention; it doesn't hit us on the head with flashbacks or expository "on the nose" dialog. Instead the script is frugal, casually exacting, and the discovery is in the subtext rather than "what's on screen".
When we first meet Jackie, all we see is a head and shoulders, hands manipulating the CCTV cameras so she can get a better look at the nefarious goings on she is trained to know what's worth looking at and what she can let go.
Jackie remains rather disembodied throughout much of the film - even during sex it seems she's not really connected to anything below her neck, including her heart. She's passive, running away from even the slightest emotional exchange.
Except for Clyde. Clyde changes everything. She loses perspective and we follow along with her, despising Clyde because she does. Everything he does looks vaguely criminal because we see him through Jackie's tainted eyes.
But again we are challenged to see Clyde (and other characters) as layered individuals. The waste-nothing script gives us insight into their motivations sure, it could have had some sort of perversion or "twisty" ending, but the point really is that sometimes what looks strange and frightening on the surface is actually benign and familiar on a deeper, more personal level.
A lot has been said here about the sex scene, which is pretty explicit, although only one scene. But it is the pivotal scene in the film. In order to insinuate herself into Clyde's world, she has to engage with him in a way she's been avoiding with anyone. But she ends up letting go completely, more than she "has" to. And in doing so she not only accesses her pain and anger, but remembers her body and its need for nurturing, remembers her heart and her compassion, and begins to see Clyde in three dimensions for the first time. As do we.
I did have a problem with the police aspect of it, because here in the states what Jackie put into motion would not have been stopped just because she decided not to press the issue.
The success of a quiet story like Red Road, sans neon "American-style" exposition, exists largely in the way the characters are brought to us by the actors. Kate Dickie and Tony Curran are excellent, and it's nice to see the underrated Mr. Curran in a lead role, and not invisible, quickly dead or, uh, undead.