John Link is a former prisoner, released on parole. One fine day, his daughter Lydia arrives at his home, chased by drug traffickers.
Presented in Cannes in out of competition in a session of midnight, BLOOD FATHER , the last film of Jean-François Richet is, for some, the return of Mel Gibson. Ironically, the australian actor took the opportunity to give the Palme d’or from the jury of George Miller, the same who was revealed in the saga, Mad Max, making Mel Gibson one of the figures of the man of action modern. Subsequently, Mel Gibson is always shown as a kind of Clint Eastwood of australia, with methods that are a bit more muscular, through of the big success stories like lethal Weapon or Braveheart. Very saw in the 1990s, it is since the 2000 withdrawal. In the course of the years, 2010, his roles are restricted to men’s actions, gentiles, or wicked. For evidence, he had joined the cast of the Expendables 3, and spend as “grandpa badass that cachetonne” alongside Stallone, Schwarzy , and other.
Even if it takes the lead role in BLOOD FATHER, it is therefore difficult to speak of a real return of Mel Gibson in the action movie because he never really left this kind. In an hour and a half of film, Jean-François Richet develops a scenario quite simple, in which the sequences of chases and other regulations of accounts does not leave time to get bored. The film lasts only one hour and thirty minutes and leaves no time to get bored, without much to convince us completely.
On the technical side, BLOOD FATHER is not done badly, and we can see some waterfalls pleasant, as the turnaround of the caravan at the beginning of the film. But at no time Jean-François Richet does show originality in its staging. BLOOD FATHER turns out to be a movie extremely conventional, with no surprises. The bias of the shaky cam (camera tremblée redoubled zooms sudden, popularized by Death in the Skin) is not enough to create the tension and the action expected. Held at the u.s.-mexican border in the middle of the drug, BLOOD FATHER does not succeed to make the atmosphere foul that he tried to establish, as it can exist in No Country for Old Men or, more recently, Cartel de Ridley Scott (even if this last film is missed for other reasons.) The blood of the title’s promised is finally rather discreet, and merely a few outpourings from time to time.
As in the preceding film by Jean-François Richet, A moment of disorientation, the characters are stereotypes far too reductive. The other main character, Lydia, played by Erin Moriarty (spotted in the series True Detective , and Jessica Jones) does not cease to be a liability to his father, only interested in boys (she drag the first young man who came), an image that remains little to be rewarding for the girl. A pity that there is not an evolution of Lydia, a form of learning, even as it made both the opening and closing of the film. By this process, BLOOD FATHER is the vision of the father by the daughter who found. The interest of the film is to see the “Blood Father” action.
“BLOOD FATHER leans more on the side of pure entertainment that the film’s copyright, without imposing as a reference in the field.”
Between two action scenes, Jean-François Richet reveals his character, which has only a single guiding principle that of redemption. This theme is found at all levels of reading, as we can see the reunion between daughter and father, John Link that comes up on the traces of his past, but also, and especially, the return of Mel Gibson, when he shaves the beard, metaphor supported the possible. The most nostalgic will be glad to see the australian rejuvenate suddenly at the screen. With all of that, we understand that Jean-François Richet wants to make a film more profound than it seems. But it is not enough to make allusions, as may be the tattoo of Don Quixote (which would be comparable to John Link ? little convincing) to give meaning to a film. Only remains, therefore, that the scenes a more aggressive approach, making BLOOD FATHER movie disappointing because they were poorly operated.
We feel that Jean-François Richet drags with him a paw, very frenchy, a little bit like Olivier Marchal. One wonders if the framing, décadrages, and other zoom problematic are his claw, or a desire to make ” american “. Oscillating between two poles, BLOOD FATHER is leaning more on the side of pure entertainment that the film’s copyright, without imposing as a reference in the field. At the most an attempt of revival of Mel Gibson not in movies but in the business hollywood.
Alexander Léaud
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