Directed and scripted by Lynne Ramsay, no stranger to weirdness (she brought us WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN a few years ago), this film is disturbingly shot: extreme close-ups and low-angles on noisy streets and murky corridors. The soundtrack is a mix of teeny-bopper pop-songs and traffic noise. Joe has flashbacks to a violent childhood of his own and scenes of carnage from his military service (was this Vietnam or Afghanistan?)
Joaquin Phoenix, looking and acting disturbingly like Dennis Hopper in one of his more psychotic roles, is the key to the movie, but I have to say I was really never sure what the point was. A paedophile sex-ring in high places was hinted at, but in the end it came over more as just another kidnap movie, albeit at a deeper and darker level than Lian Neeson's adventures in the same arena.
Joaquin Phoenix, looking and acting disturbingly like Dennis Hopper in one of his more psychotic roles, is the key to the movie, but I have to say I was really never sure what the point was. A paedophile sex-ring in high places was hinted at, but in the end it came over more as just another kidnap movie, albeit at a deeper and darker level than Lian Neeson's adventures in the same arena.