Plastic Eggs 2009-01-04
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How far, really, would you go if someone took the one thing that meant the entire world to you away without any reason or logic? This is just one of the questions posed to the viewer in the film, the most recent adaptation of a Jack Ketchum novel.
Red takes all your preconceived notions of what a revenge film is, which, for some reason, is what this film is being marketed as. It's not really a revenge film at all; when I think vigilante revenge I think of Death Wish or even Thriller: A Cruel Picture, but not this film. This is a character study of how one simple, plain man reacts to a gruesome scenario; almost a noir in the sense that an every day man is placed into the absurdity of violence and malevolence.
It is a film about choices, those we do and do not make, and the consequences they bring about. When Ludlow is told by his friend in the police force that no one wants to help him, the DA won't prosecute, the local news refuses to cover the story any further after an initial airing of a brief interview with Ludlow, he doesn't necessarily take the law into his hands per say, he simply does a little bit further than most people would as they let the cops take care of everything. So, the idea of law and those who supposedly uphold it, the police & court systems, is questioned with a subtlety that might be missed in the light of preconceived ideas that this is a shoot 'em up, older man snaps film in the vein of Falling Down. This is not, I say again, that type of a film; it is a study of human beings and the terrible things we're capable of, and how most try to make sense of the senseless, in this case it's simply Ludlow's quest for an apology from the young boy who so happily murdered his dog and the things he does to get it. Unfortunately, once Ludlow gets it, it's too late and there's no real going back after all has been said and done.
Brian Cox, as always, does a spectacular job with his role, I'm thoroughly convinced that the man can not hand in a bad performance. (not that he hasn't made some questionable choices with the films he chooses to be in, i.e. The Ringer) Tom Sizemore actually manages to lift himself from his real life booze and drug addicted haze to hand in a convincing performance as a father who simply does not care, who feels that every problem can either be punched (as is made clear by the bruises on his wife's face.) or bought off. All else included do their best with their roles as well, not a bad performance to be found here.
