The overall seedy atmosphere of the film paired with Jonny Greenwood’s pulsing score earns the film its oft-cited “Taxi Driver for the 21st Century” tag.
You Were Never Really Here defies logic by being borderline incoherent yet remaining entirely gripping and immensely watchable.
Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe, a grizzled veteran of a recent war (I’m assuming Iraq or Afghanistan), who now lives with and cares for his elderly mother (Judith Roberts). He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from things he’s seen in the war and his experiences with abuse as a young child. For money, he takes cash-only hit jobs from his boss, McCleary (John Doman). His weapon of choice for each hit is a newly purchased ball-peen hammer, so he often gets up close and personal with his work. When he’s tasked to recover a Senator’s daughter (Ekaterina Samsonov) from a sex trafficking ring, things do not go as planned.
Director/writer Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) filters the story through Joe’s fractured thoughts. Scenes often fluctuate from present day to Joe’s war experiences to Joe’s childhood and back again. Joe can’t focus on anything for too long so Ramsay doesn’t let the audience do so either. It’s initially frustrating but, once the script parses out enough story to keep things moving, it becomes less so. The overall seedy atmosphere of the film paired with Jonny Greenwood’s pulsing score earns the film its oft-cited “Taxi Driver for the 21st Century” tag. I’d have to say that is an entirely accurate summation of the film.
Joaquin Phoenix’s haunted performance is the key ingredient in what could very easily have been a recipe for disaster. Even though Joe is not traditionally likable — especially as he dishes out brutal vengeance — I still found myself caring about what happened to him. Ramsay keeps us in the dark about specific details about Joe but the way he processes information works as a strange kind of character development. It requires more commitment from the viewer than usual and those who don’t want to put in that kind of investment into the film will likely not get much out of it.
It’s not an easy film to recommend but, for adventurous film-goers, I think You Were Never Really Here is a worthwhile, if not exactly uplifting, experience.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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