You Were Never Really Here — London Film Festival Review
Lynne Ramsay, during her barely-an-introduction to You Were Never Really Here — the Scottish filmmaker’s first feature since 2011’s acclaimed We Need To Talk About Kevin — remarked that it wasn’t exactly a suitable movie for a Sunday morning, which is putting it lightly, to be honest. It’s a brutal, stripped-down piece which, in true Ramsay fashion, doesn’t shy away from showing the effect of violence in its entirety. While the story may be too simple for some, I found it an enthralling, gut-wrenching watch, which truly deserved the two awards it picked up at this year’s Cannes for screenwriting and lead actor.
Said actor is all-time great Joaquin Phoenix as Joe, a haunted ex-soldier who now lives with his mother, works as a hitman, and is tasked with rescuing the teenage daughter of a state senator from her kidnappers. Along the way, we see brief flashbacks that fill out his story and explain his demeanour. All of which makes it sound pretty cliched, but the treatment and the performance work to elevate the movie far, far above most others of its type.
To start, the tone of the movie is ruthless, never backing down or giving the audience a second’s rest. From the use of close-ups to bring you into the goriest moments to the striking, almost horror-esque editing by Thomas Townend, this is a film that never allows you to let your guard down, creating some of the most effective suspense I’ve seen in a film in years. And that’s without even getting to the sound work, which mixes a darkly comedic use of upbeat songs with Jonny Greenwood’s superb, cacophonous score to amazing effect. The cinematography, meanwhile, gravitates between the methodical and the deeply intimate, ensuring this slow-paced movie is never boring.
Phoenix brings every ounce of his extraordinary talent to the role of Joe. One of the best physical actors I’ve ever seen, he can express so much about the mostly quiet character through the tiniest of gestures, and when events occur that genuinely affect him, he is heartbreaking to watch. He carries this entire movie on his shoulders in a way you really wouldn’t think possible for a human being. The other roles, from The Wire’s John Doman as Joe’s “boss”, Judith Roberts as his mother, are more than impressive in their small appearances, while Ekaterina Samsonov as kidnap victim Nina is both sympathetic and haunting, but this is Phoenix’s movie and everybody knows it.
It’s incredible to me that Ramsay has only made four features in her career, and over a twenty-year period. She has more control over her filmmaking than 95% of directors, and finds a way to address very difficult themes — most notably, the effect of violence on children — with blunt, unsparing movies that truly get you inside their characters’ heads. We can only hope her next movie takes far less time than this did.
