Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge (a terrible title since it has the same name as the Kevin Costner 1990 movie, a 2002 Roman Polanski film, a 1971 Shelley Winters film, and more) might be the best movie of 2018 you have yet to hear about. However, I can’t think of a better one for a movie that makes no bones about it, a movie about revenge, and nothing more. Driven by a first-time director in Fargeat, a cast that has no one that you’ve ever heard of, and a marketing campaign that likely consisted only of trailers on just as unknown straight-to-DVD releases, Revenge earned less than $125,000 at the box office and its limited May 2018 release, the movie resonated with the critics (92% with 119 reviews) though, with more than 2400 ratings, just over half (55%) gave the movie a favorable review. Much more than a simple popcorn flick, Fargeat creates a highly likable protagonist in Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz – Somewhere Beautiful, Rings) and three highly unlikeable antagonists, whom I’ll discuss in subsequent paragraphs. You’ll find yourself cheering hard for Jen and hoping, even if you are against violence, that those who have wronged her get what they deserve.
Simple enough premise that when you think about it is rather scary. Money brings about power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Too often, especially in this country, large amounts of money and power can bring about a godlike syndrome in which (some) people think that you can do whatever you want and not be held accountable. Imagine when that money and that power becomes limitless. Imagine when you have enough money and influence to fly a new mistress to the most remote parts of this country, where you have to go dozens upon dozens of miles to find the nearest set of your fellow humans.]
Imagine a beautiful mansion in the middle of a desert paradise and limitless time spent with your lover. That’s what we have here. The successful Richard (Kevin Janssens) is helicoptered with his sexy nymphet Jen (Lutz). He is attractive, confident, omnipotent, and in lust with the younger Jen, who, stereotypically, is portrayed as a bit of a harlot. What intelligence and survival skills we will come to learn about aren’t presented at the film’s start. We don’t even know who the protagonist is in this film (unless we watched the trailer or read about the film beforehand) for a good 10-15 minutes. Richard is cheating on his wife. He has a conversation on the phone with his wife, and he says, “Everything would be so simple if the kids weren’t there.” We know he is a sleazebucket from the get-go. Still, Jen is beside him, listening to the entire conversation while rubbing him tenderly, encouraging him to get off the phone as quickly as possible. What’s her end game in all of this?
Just when we think that it’s just the two of them alone and we might have a Sleeping With the Enemy type of movie, we meet Stan (Vincent Colombe) and Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède) enter the picture. At first, we think Stan and Dimitri are trouble because that’s what Jen thinks. Here we are in this isolated oasis, expecting a weekend of hot sex. I guess Richard forgot to mention to Jen that his two hunting buddies (each much less attractive than Richard and Jen) would join the couple for the weekend. Why would he choose to share his time when he could be having hot sex the entire time is beyond me and probably beyond most men my age. So, when our Sleeping With the Enemy type movie is about to turn into an R-rated Home Alone,
Richard comes down from his shower and saves the day. “Hey, hey, hey. No worries, babe. These are my buddies.” The quartet parties hard that night. There is alcohol. There are drugs. There is sex. There is a very subtle interjection by Fargeat, where the characters talk about peyote, a drug that blocks the brain’s pain receptors. Stan and Dimitri tell the story of a man who sawed his leg off and didn’t even feel it. Pay attention to this part of the movie. There is some sexual tension all around between the three men and Jen. Well, it’s more about Stan’s sexual thirst for Jen. Dimitri doesn’t care as much about her as he does about getting bombed, while Richard’s jealousies prompt him to zip Jen away from his two friends and up to his bed to have her for his own for a night of forever unforgettable memories.
The following day, Richard has left the house for a bit. Dimitri is hungover. And Stan is horny. While dancing and flirting with him the previous evening, when Richard watched from afar, sober Jen thinks more clearly. She realizes just how unattractive she is to Stan, telling him straightforwardly that he’s not her type. Moments after breaking Stan’s heart, he corners her in the bedroom, blaming her for his forthcoming acts of sexual violence: “Now, suddenly, I’m not your type? Yesterday, you were dying for it.” Jen is raped. This goes from bad to worse very quickly. Richard calls her a whore and chooses to protect his friend rather than believe the woman he was willing to do just about anything for just 24 hours earlier. A sequence of events leads Jen to being chased into the desert and pushed off a cliff by Richard, where her abdomen pierces a rock and stops moving. But to get to the body, the trio of men have to drive down the embankment. This gives Jen just enough time to hallucinate a rebirth that’s fueled by hellish visions and several perfectly timed scares. Still wounded, she becomes the hunter and will stop at nothing to get her revenge. And this is where we get to the second half of our story.
There is more to this movie than what appears on the surface. Of course, at its core, it’s a survival movie first and a revenge movie second. But there are many analogies here to what’s going on in 2019 with our current President of the United States and other members of Congress and the business world with her loads of power or money. We have a clear metaphor for workplace harassment and abuse of power settings and how each of these is covered up. While this could have been far more political, Fargeat laid the foundation and let her audiences draw their conclusions.
Likewise, this movie could have gotten goofy in how Jen went after those who wronged her. Heck, if you aren’t rooting for her to give these people the terrible deaths they deserve, I would question why. Now, if you’re basing your decision on whether revenge that entails killing those who tried to kill you is on what I just wrote, please see the movie. I don’t condone killing, but this was A) a movie, and B) this woman was left for dead after what was perceived to be a gruesome death. Jen becomes a character who is impossible not to root for as she clings and claws for life, knowing that her only path to safety is to kill these three men who now need her dead more than ever. It’s an excruciating, exhilarating, and delightful ride.
Plot 8/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
84%
B
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- King Richard
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