Vengeance Is Mine

1984

Drama

4
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 295 295

Plot summary

Unsuccessfully trying to close old family wounds on a trip back to the Rhode Island home of her miserable childhood, a troubled young woman finds her new friendship with a neighbor has her stuck in another family drama.

Director

Michael Roemer Photo
Michael Roemer

Top cast

Ari Meyers Photo
Ari Meyers as Jackie
Jon DeVries Photo
Jon DeVries as Tom
Trish Van Devere Photo
Trish Van Devere as Donna
Brooke Adams Photo
Brooke Adams as Jo
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.07 GB
1280*770
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 58 min
Seeds 1
1.98 GB
1796*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 58 min
Seeds 8

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by gbill-74877 7 / 10

Being on the outside looking in at one's own life

"I'm trying to tell you something, mom."A woman going through a divorce goes back to her hometown to see her family, one she's never really been connected with. We see her struggling emotionally with her unloving adoptive mother, her unaware birth mother, and her violent husband in scenes that each tug on the heart, but in a bit of a twist, Roemer then shifts the drama away from all of these things.Perhaps in need of a surrogate set of relationships, the woman befriends the neighbors, but soon finds herself in the middle of another couple going through a divorce, one made more complicated because of their pre-teen daughter and the wife spiraling with serious mental health issues. Instead of simply fleeing to the job awaiting her on the opposite coast, she sticks around, seeing herself in the little girl, and maybe trying to plug the emotional void left when the baby she had at 16 was taken away. The girl's mother naturally feels threatened, and even more so because the newcomer has an easy relationship with her husband. The emotions that are stirred up here are raw and visceral, building as they go.Roemer exercises great restraint in the area of physical intimacy as well as in the many cliché directions this could have turned. For example, there is a very chilling moment with the wife staring through a rain-streaked window at night with about 30 minutes left, but Roemer doesn't follow that up with dramatic moments that you might see in a conventional Hollywood film. One also never gets the sense that the film is judging these characters, and in fact, one of them voices the belief that even the people who've treated us badly in life are not to blame.I'm not sure I ever completely connected with this one as there was just so much emotional devastation in these lives, but in the gut wrenching feelings of love that's evaporated (or never was present at all), and in seemingly being on the outside looking in at one's own life, there is undeniable power.
Reviewed by Craftsman1800 8 / 10

This is a very good film!

Start to finish I was fascinated with this film. The entire time I may have had expectations of what would come next, but what then came about continued to keep me off balance. There was an impulsiveness that, perhaps contrary to conventional thought, gave it realness...yet also a surreal feeling. It was very much it's own film yet gave nods to films like Bergman's "Persona", Altman's "3 Women", and Casavettes' "A Women Under the Influence". However this film only skirted the sureal, with some role reversals, and was firmly about healing. The focus was on Brooke Adams' character, and her arrival and departure bookended the film. Nevertheless, there were numerous other characters who needed to move on and heal. It was a type of healing that requires knowing yourself, others, and your role with them and the world.
Read more IMDb reviews

7 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment