This one arrived on my list via the usual recommendations and I thought it was simply a new, notable work by relatively unknown people. It turned out that it was directed by Lynne Ramsay who also the excellent We Need to Talk About Kevin and of course the male lead is Joaquin Phoenix though I could not recognize him at all due to how buff he made himself for this role. It’s one  of those astonishing transformations that some actors pull off from time to time that seems unhealthy to me.

Large and physically imposing, Joe lives alone with his elderly mother and apparently makes a living as a heavy who specializes in recovering kidnapped girls and punishing those responsible. It is evident that he as himself abused as a child and had witnessed horrible events during his time in the military, resulting in frequent flashbacks and suicidal thoughts. One job he gets is helping a senator recover his daughter, Nina, which he carries out brutally but efficiently. However just before he is due to meet the senator to return his daughter to him, he learns that the senator has fallen to his death in an apparent suicide. Soon after police barge into the motel where he is hiding out and they are not taking prisoners, immediately killing the motel clerk and they attempt to execute him as well. It becomes evident that Joe has offended powerful figures in government and they are out to get him.

The premise here immediately invites comparison with the highly successful Taken franchise which I haven’t watched at all. Despite the similarities and while Joe is certainly a hyper-competent combatant who can seemingly take down multiple guards and the like with ease, this is very much not an action movie. There is plenty of violence here, especially delivered with a hammer, but most of it takes place off camera. Even when a fight scene is shown, the camera angles are bad and it’s quickly over. The intent is obvious: this is not a film that glorifies violence. Instead the focus is squarely on Joe’s mental state and the immense trauma that put him in his current headspace. Whether he is waiting for a train or sitting in a diner, he is constantly fantasizing about ways to kill himself in order to cope with the constant flashbacks that he has. When he recovers Nina who is near catatonic after what has happened to her, it is evident that they see each other as something like kindred spirits in suffering. With its music that is alternately discordant and vaguely old-fashioned and child-like, this is probably as good a portrayal of PTSD as you can find on film.

It’s especially powerful when you realize that the one overriding emotion that drives Joe is not rage but pain. One scene has Joe confront assassins who have intruded into his house. After he has dealt with them, one is left alive but mortally wounded. Instead of taking out his anger on an enemy, Joe shows compassion to the dying man and at the last moment even takes his hand. One thing I don’t like is the worldbuilding which once again relies on child sex rings being implausibly powerful and connected. This is a serious film and child sex trafficking is a real threat but why is there a need to ramp up the evil conspiracy to action movie level villains. It feels a little silly and out of place. Similarly I don’t understand how Joe can make a regular gig out of busting these rings. It would actually be more plausible if he were really a contract killer and just ran into this as my wife suggested. But the film seems insistent that he only ever attacks such criminals. So strange.

Overall this is a tour de force performance on the part of Joaquin Phoenix and it’s fascinating to get an inner view of a mind so wracked by PTSD.  Still it’s a film with limited scope and ambition with not even Nina being a fully developed character, so there’s only so far that it can go.