I completely understand the desire for films that are out of the ordinary; films that take risks and do certain things that would not ever be seen in the typical Hollywood format. In fact, I highly encourage and will always be a strong advocate for breaking this format, as that is one of the best ways to make great art out of a movie. However, to me, there is a line that can be crossed when it comes to separating creative art from nonsensical filmmaking. Unfortunately, Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here pole vaults over that line in the most confusing way possible.
Lynne Ramsay is a fantastic filmmaker and I remember really enjoying We Need to Talk About Kevin years ago on its release. While I was expecting more of a film among those lines, I was blindsided by Ramsay's directing style in this crime thriller. Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe, a traumatized veteran who makes money as a hired gun and is hired to track down a missing girl from a secret sex trade. Joe uses any method of violence in order to fulfill his goal and in particular, uses a hammer to bash in the skulls of those who stand in his way. The directing and screenplay from Ramsay is my biggest issue with this whole film, which is unfortunate, given that those are its most praised aspects as well. This movie almost entirely relies on context clues for the audience to decipher the story. In fact, I have probably written more up to this point than what was in the script's dialogue. The very quiet and nuanced tone that was built for this environment did not necessarily work for me, as I felt that much more could have been done to create a more understandable plot. However, I do appreciate Ramsay not taking the straightforward plot path, so you must see why I am so conflicted on if I even enjoyed this or not.
A few aspects that I do know I loved, however, were Joaquin Phoenix's performance, the editing, and the score. Phoenix's character is very intriguing to me because while I felt for him during his multiple flashback sequences, I couldn't help but think that he was still that lonely child who was trying to escape his haunting past. His character was written very well and had a lot of potential to be much more interesting, but I just feel that a lot of his substance was wasted on the directing and given to his senseless yet muted violence instead. The editing in this film by Joe Bini was incredible, utilizing very quick cuts and flashbacks to truly take the viewer out of their comfort zone (the montage of attraction with the feet motif was particularly amazing to see). The score of this film, done by Jonny Greenwood, also added to its peculiar tone throughout as well. The chilling and often uncomfortable music made for a strange experience during many of the violent hammer scenes involving Joe. I feel as if the fraught distance created between the audience and the musically-accompanied death scenes was meant to wean out the weakest of filmgoers and I must confess that I was almost one of them.
You Were Never Really Here is such a divisive film that I am certain many fans of arthouse cinema will adore. While I did enjoy Phoenix's performance and some of the technical aspects, this film is simply not for me. I really wanted to like this movie but the style of directing threw me for the worst kind of loop.
My Rating: ★★
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