Mercy Road - Movie Review

The Movie: Mercy Road

The Director: John Curran

The Cast: Luke Bracey, Toby Jones

The Story: It tells the story of a flawed everyman who commits a crime. He soon learns how far he is willing to go to save his child.

The Review:

I'm always intrigued by these types of movies that keep the focus on one character in one location for the entire movie while attemtping to maintain a level of itensity and drama that keeps you engaged from beginning to end. There's been everything from people stuck in a single room, in a cell, in a grave, and everything in between but they are all stationary locations so it was interesting to see how this story would play out inside of a moving vehicle. Kind of like Speed, the classic action movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

Right from the beginning, the story kicks into high gear with a pacing and editing format that ramps up the intensity and the soundtrack score takes everything to another level. There's a fierceness and an energy that fills every scene which owed a lot to the performance from Luke Bracey who really goes all in as a father seeking justice for wrongs that have been done to his daughter.

Director John Curran slowly pulls back layers of story that fills in all the gaps that have been left wide open by jumping straight into what seems like the middle of some pretty crazy stuff that's going down. The verbal exchanges between Bracey's character and Toby Jones' voice on the phone character are really the highlight of the entire movie. The contrast in styles is a perfect match and the two go toe to toe from beginning to end.

Speaking of the end, I was really curious as to how this was all going to play out and the end result was really unexpected and quite honestly a bit confusing. I had to sit and ponder for a moment what had just happened and actually went back to watch the ending again to see if it might make sense a second time around. I will say that I think I got where the movie was trying to go but I don't know how I feel about having to go back to figure it out. Maybe it was just me, but the end just sort of felt like it crashed into a ditch instead of properly finishing off with the explosive finale it deserved.

The Verdict:

Mercy Road is like a high speed chase that runs out of gas as it crosses the finish line. An outstanding performance from Luke Bracey keeps the movie rolling and ultimately makes it worth the effort. Give this movie a shot.