This is the kind of movie I avoid like the plague. Movies about life events that cut too close to the bone; are too close to the realities of life that we deal with every single day; that I go to the movies to escape from. In fact, the idea that the events of this movie could happen (and possibly do) in real life is precisely the reason why I go to largely genre movies in the first place. Movies, for me, are a place to escape real life, and if life is to be examined please give it to me only in the form of intense or extreme satire or allegory. Never the real thing, thank you. All of the preceding is exactly why I am so glad that the festival team of After Dark saw fit to put this movie on its roster this year. This is a movie about the examination of justice and friendship and one man’s journey to make sense of his life. It is beautiful, haunting, torrid and satisfying.
This is the story of Avery Ludlow (Brian Cox), a quiet man who lives alone with his dog, Red (of the title), and owns the general store in his small town. One Sunday morning while out fishing with his dog he is come upon by three teenagers, one with a shotgun. After attempting to rob him, the boy with the shotgun, Danny, turns and shoots Red in the head, killing him almost instantly. Making a joke of it and seeing how well the gun worked, Danny and his two friends leave Avery with his dying friend and a need for justice so strong that it effects the lives of all those involved, and ripples out to many of those around them in deeply profound ways. A meditation on the ways people choose the live their lives and how they make sense of what happens to them, this movie – an official selection at Sundance – is not to be missed.
Set in a small town the costumes and art direction make up about half of the effect of this movie. Understanding the deep povrety for some, the instense riches of others, while investigating the inner riches of our main character, the art direction was flawless. It was so well excecuted, in fact, that it was barely noticable, an admirable trait in art direction. The art direction was only overshadowed by the incredbile performances in this film. Brian Cox was the best I’ve ever seen him, giving a toned and measured performance in which there was more below the surface than above it. He managed something I’ve never seen before in a film: intimancy. We know very little of this man, and what we do know comes out in small bits over the course of the film, but we feel as though he is someone we have known forever. A brother, an uncle, a friend, a familiar person we feel instantly at ease with, which makes his life even more tragic. It is my understanding that there is what the industry calls an ‘outside chance’ of an Oscar nomination, and I beleive that it has never been better deserved. Never.
Lastly, I must give a nod to the directors, Trygve Allister Diesen and Lucky McKee, who chose minimalism over the overt on-the-platter style of Hollywood, in some cases choosing only a sound queue as a storyteller allowing the viewer to imagine, making this a completely personal film experience. Brian Cox carried this movie entirely on his own, something I didn’t previously know he could do. I would never begrudge an actor taking something for the paycheque, but Mr. Cox, you are wasted on the X-Men and Bournes of the world, sir.
**Note: For those of you who are leery of seeing this because it surrounds the death of an animal, I should put a note in to say that it is very tastefully done and you are not forced to watch a prosthetic animal bleed to death. It is, in fact, more tragic to see the wounds on his owner’s face than to see the actual wounds on Red’s body. Once again, an excellent choice.
