Revenge, an action thriller written/directed by Coralie Fargeat and starring Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz is the story of a mistress’s highly justified vengeance after her lover and his friends do their worst.

Featuring just four characters and set in a desert somewhere, Jen the mistress is supposed to be a kind of semi-superhero, vengeance-seeking character.  Unfortunately for me, I feel as though the movie didn’t declare itself as ‘not quite realistic’ early enough in the story or clearly enough; especially because of how frighteningly real the beginning of the film is. This then had me questioning and doubting the validity of things that were happening later instead of surrendering to the ‘semi-real’ place the film occupies.

The next unexpected challenge with Revenge came with the moments that played for laughs. As amusing as these moments may have been, I found myself not laughing because of the horror of the things that happened earlier as a catalyst for vengeance in the first place. One might say that I simply became too busy and focused on justice and the villains’ comeuppance to concern myself with amusement.

In terms of what I did enjoy about Fargeat’s movie;  that would be the suspense, visual style and the story of a badass female fighting for herself against the odds. I also appreciated the good, realistic looking movie blood of which there’s plenty. It’s unsurprising then that the two most unforgettable scenes both feature quite a bit of blood. The main one being a tension filled corridor chase sequence towards the end and another scene that involves an impaling. I’d like to add that I don’t ‘have a thing for blood’. I just like it to look realistic where hue and consistency are concerned.

I may well have enjoyed  this movie more had it not been for the superhero/fantasy elements. Just take a moment to imagine no confusion or seemingly misplaced humour. Instead there’s pure vengeance. How different the movie could have been (*sigh).

See it if you’re curious but maybe don’t expect too much.

Happy Film Loving

G