These crime-noir pieces has always centered on either a professional or tormented man that either has some bleakness over his head that makes you question and follow and study his character. I was excited about this movie based on the trailer because I have never seen Joaquin Phoenix play like a hitman or an action hero. You expect to be an action fest where you root for the action hero to kick butt and cheer and applaud and walk out having a good time. Director Lynn Ramsey approaches the genre a quite different and bleak way that makes the experience both challenging and satisfying.
Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a Gulf War veteran who has been experiencing PTSD due to encounters of the war. He is living with his ailing mother (Judith Roberts) in New York City because she is the only person left in his life. He is suicidal as he grasps a knife in his hand, contemplating his fate with that tool and also standing in the middle of the train tracks. Joe goes to a bodega to collect payment from a job of rescuing a trafficking girl. He gets his payment from Angel (Frank Pando), the middleman between Joe and his handler. Joe cuts ties with Angel because of his son watching him doing what he does and where he resides.
Joe gets another assignment from his handler, John McCleary (John Damon), to recover the daughter of Senator Albert Votto (Alex Manette) after she ran way. Votto does not want authorities involved since he is working with Governor Williams (Alessandro Nivola) and is willing to pay $50,000 for his daughter's return. Joe personally meets with Votto to discuss her whereabouts and he gives the senator the address to meet after the job is done. But, things go awry as Joe becomes a bit double-crossed.
This is a challenging movie to dissect as you question yourself how you feel following a man who is suffering from PTSD, inhibiting grunginess and gloom, in an action movie. His life is depressing because of his past experiences and the ounce of happiness is left in the house with his mother. The dynamic between Phoenix and Roberts is terrific because you see his soul having some light left in that scene that guides him to become a stable person. Ramsey pulls off some decisions that is out of left field in terms of tone, narrative and song choice, a few of them real interesting and bizarre, that I appreciated but I cannot conceive. It seems to me that I was not happy experiencing throughout the movie because of Joe's sad life until the ending where it could finish happily or more sad.
Joaquin Phoenix gives one of his most courageous performances to date, as you feel the bitterness and solitude of a man that is doused by the portraits of horror and despair. You can see and be hypnotized by the dark solitude of this character and you re-think the different movies can be made in the action genre. The scene with the lake with Phoenix is devastating and powerful and that is the small moment that you root for him. The remaining cast is quite solid: John Damon, Judith Roberts (who is great in a brief role), Alex Manette and Alessandro Nivola.
Director Lynne Ramsey does a good job of focusing more on the character and the mission at hand as it is more straight-forward in its narrative but complex in its tone and direction. But, even though, some of the decisions in the narrative were bold, it did not quite pay off where Phoenix's character figures out what has gone wrong. He is struggling with his "demons" in his head and paying attention the mission. And, the ending did not quite work for me as they should take off a little section because I got it for throughout the film. But, Ramsey's approach of the action movie and focusing on the character. Despite a languid pace and bizarre choices, the experience is quite enriching that it hypnotizes you in its dreamlike quality that could end in that fantastical dream or hellish nightmare. I am not crazy about this movie but I liked it.
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