Vengeance: A Love Story is a bit of a difficult movie. It’s more thriller than action. Much of the movie centers on how one not-good family near Niagra Falls could make life a living Hell for a single mother. If you are in the mood for a high action Nicolas Cage movie then you will probably give this two stars. Those who are looking for a bit more of a psychological thriller with a touch of action will probably give this four stars. You can watch this movie for free on The Roku Channel.
Slow to Start
Psychological thrillers with any meat to them tend to have a lot of backstory. Vengeance: A Love Story paints the backstory up front, or at least most of it. Anna Hutchinson delivers an Oscar worthy performance throughout the movie. The whole gang rape scene, trauma afterwords, quivering bowl of Jello on the witness stand was just amazing.
Picks up Speed
Nicolas Cage plays an aging detective. His wife has been dead/gone for many years. No family and it appears few friends. It’s obvious to every cop at the scene that it was a gang rape. To make matters worse, it was in front of her very young daughter.
The rapists are identified as some brothers and a friend. They deal drugs and are not from a good family, but the family is connected in town. Connected to the low-life toughs who set about to paint the single mother as the town slut who sold herself to the boys.
Enter Don Johnson
He plays the high priced defense attorney that guilty low-life scum pay big dollars for to stay out of jail. He has one simple tactic. Destroy the witness on the stand at the pretrial hearing. Yes, the judge will send the case to trial but the witness will never again have the courage to take the stand. Nice to see Don on the screen again, even if he is playing lawyer scum.
Post Pre-trial
Nicolas Cage’s character is an aging cop with nothing to lose. After a certain age a life sentence isn’t what it used to be. He has seen too much and knows exactly how this is going to go. One by one each rapist is done in. He really gets creative. This is the part really worth watching for the average Joe. I can’t tell you more without spoiling the ending. It’s so simple and so fantastic!
The script and acting make it seem that Nicolas Cage’s character had always wanted a family and he takes this little girl under his wing like a daughter. To protect her he has to get everyone that hurt her mother.
For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.
