Revenge, 2018.
Directed by Coralie Fargeat.
Starring Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Guillaume Boudeche, and Vincent Colombe.
SYNOPSIS:
Jen (Matilda Lutz) has a romantic weekend away with boyfriend Richard (Kevin Janssens) disrupted by a couple of his friends, who’ve arrived early for a hunting trip. Things go from bad to worse and, after a vicious attack, she’s stranded in the desert. With one thing on her mind. Revenge.
“Women always have to put up a f**king fight!” shouts Richard (Kevin Janssens) in Coralie Fargeat’s feature film debut, Revenge. And, brought down to its most basic level, that’s what the film is about. Yet that shout of frustration comes in the latter stages of the film and, given everything that goes before, you’d have thought he would have worked it out long ago. But that’s because Jen (Matilda Lutz) isn’t what she appears to be.
When she arrives at the plush holiday home in the desert, she’s all short skirts, sunglasses and sucks a lollipop Lolita-style. She’s pert, wears skimpy clothes and just seems to be out for a good time and little more. So she’s happy to party with his hunting buddies for an evening but, in her boyfriend’s absence the following morning, doesn’t feel like carrying on. One of his friends thinks otherwise, rapes her and when boyfriend Richard returns, he doesn’t react in quite the way she was hoping. His solution is brutal – he has a marriage to protect, after all – but she unexpectedly comes through it and sets about tracking down all three men, getting her own back, one by one.
A simple premise, then, and a film that hits you right between the eyes. One with a second half drenched in blood and equally gruesome sound effects but, if you can put that on one side for a moment, what you have is a well paced revenge thriller and chase movie, which comes complete with a large dollop of horror in the grand guignol tradition. The fact that the avenger isn’t just female, but one who’s been objectified right from the start, makes her actions all the more powerful and all the more ironic, because it’s the last thing the men expect. It has to be said, however, that she continues to be objectified throughout the film, with her minimal “battle gear”, but the way she handles a gun and herself in general is impressive. She’s extremely resourceful and inventive and with more than a hint of Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft about her.
Revenge is also a movie with a strong visual style. There’s some powerful images and, even if they’re not exactly subtle – the apple with the large bite, complete with teeth marks, for instance – they’re most definitely effective. The most memorable of all, surprisingly, doesn’t involve a single drop of blood, but one of the men chomping a chocolate biscuit bar as the rape takes place in front of his eyes. The close up gives us saliva, crumbs, the lot, a throwback to the lingering, detailed shots once favoured by spaghetti westerns. And it’s a parallel that follows through into other aspects of the film, such as the setting – the barren, dusty desert – and the monosyllabic men.
Ultimately, as this is a genre movie, you’ll need to leave any disbelief outside because there are moments when its credibility is just a tad stretched. But that’s an inherent part of its style and also one of reasons why it’s so watchable. The audience is watching a woman who can cauterise a sizeable through-and-through wound with a combination of a beer can and a hallucinogenic drug – and the logo from the can transfers itself onto her stomach. She’s resourceful all right…
Revenge isn’t for the squeamish or faint-hearted, but it is for anybody who likes genre movies, especially with a decidedly contemporary angle. And Fargeat wears her genre credentials loud and proud, delivering suspense and action in almost equal measure, plus a gruesome sense of fun. Where she goes from here is anybody’s guess…
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★★ / Movie: ★★★
SEE ALSO: Check out our exclusive interview with Coralie Fargeat and Matilda Lutz here
Freda Cooper. Follow me on Twitter.
