Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – Blue Ruin (Movie Review)

Blue Ruin (UK Rating: 15)

Dwight (Macon Blair) is homeless, living in his battered wreck of a car. When he learns that the man convicted of the brutal murder of his parents is about to be released from prison, he has just one thing on his mind. Taking his revenge, though, comes with consequences in the shape of the man's brothers and, while Dwight manages to save his sister and her children from them, he is then caught up in a struggle to protect himself and eliminate the killer's entire family.

The convention of revenge thrillers usually dictates the central character has never been far from violence.  They're often an ex-cop or ex-soldier and, if neither, they certainly know how to handle a gun or another weapon. Blue Ruin goes very neatly off piste. The trauma of his parent's death has left Dwight emotionally shattered, barely able to cope with life and with little or no confidence. The last thing he can do is handle a weapon, yet his desire for revenge on his parents' murderer is so powerful he still manages to kill him. Then the reality of his actions sets in and the fear takes over again - until the dead man's brothers come after him. Even then, he's singularly ill-equipped to cope with his situation and his survival is down to his gun-loving school friend Ben (an impressive Devin Ratray) who not only saves him from one of the brothers but also teaches him to shoot.

So what is the blue ruin of the title? Is it Dwight's battered old car, a constant presence in the film? It's blue. It's also where he sleeps when he's homeless, but despite its rusting state, it's still mechanically sound and is the closest thing he has to a home, providing the only security he knows. He constantly keeps the car keys on his person and panic sets in when he can't touch them. Or is it Dwight himself, blue in the sense of being depressed and a shattered ruin? Or is it something else entirely? The answer is never totally apparent, and the audience is left to make up its own mind.

That's the least of its concerns, though. Intense and with a throbbing soundtrack, Blue Ruin never loosens its grip, relentlessly ramping up the tension and leaving the audience exhausted at the end. Despite being such an unlikely and inept assassin, and regardless of his gruesome crimes, Dwight is still sympathetic and the audience finds itself hoping he gets out of his killing spree alive.

[score=7]As a thriller, Blue Ruin nods very much in the direction of the Coen Brothers - Blood Simple and No Country For Old Men both come to mind - but, although this is an impressive piece of work, director, writer and cinematographer Jeremy Saulnier has a way to go. The storyline has at least one gaping hole, and a touch more subtlety in the bloodshed department would have made it even more nerve-jangling.

Blue Ruin is screened at Sundance London on Sunday, 27 April and is released around the UK on Friday, 2 May.