A vigilante helps victims of domestic violence by acting with merciless severity against the perpetrators. The battle-hardened woman never loses sight of her own mission.
This directorial debut from Sarah Daggar-Nickson is a fascinating piece, putting forth a repressed melodramatic interpretation of the classic revenge story. With a powerful performance from Olivia Wilde, the only relatable comparison that strongly springs to mind is that of Charlize Theron's awe-inspiring exhibition in the 2003 award-winning, biographical crime drama, Monster. Fierce and compelling in its content, A Vigilante is on display in a restrained and measured manner to create a slow-paced drama.
While the subject matter is patently violent and aggressive, everything is shot and written in a manner that keeps the visible violence to a minimum, focusing more on the build-up to and consequences of each action, than the action itself. More useful in a metaphorical sense of breaking the bonds that keep the victims tied to their abusers, there is an evident attempt to avoid the otherwise implied solution of violence being necessary to escape violence.
Action is not the objective, with little to no choreography needed throughout the 91-minute runtime. Simple panning our characters out of frame, or through the creative use of environments, the audience is able to understand the gravity of the violence without physically seeing it happen, and removing the glorification of the brutality. This has a two-fold effect, allowing emphasis to be placed on the personal emotional toll of our protagonist, as well as maintaining the energy and pacing to a lower level, making A Vigilante a character study as opposed to an action thriller.
Olivia Wilde puts on a masterful performance switching between a cold, collected, clinical vigilante, and the emotionally distressed and traumatised wife and mother, suffering from an unresolved loss.
These two emotional states are largely mirrored in the colour grading choices, with a drained, near over-exposed, colour palette, during vigilante scenes, and a more saturated, but dirty, earthy colours in the more emotional scenes.
A Vigilante looks at not only Olivia Wilde's character, but also includes testimonials from other characters, and includes other cases too, creating a wide array of domestic abuse examples. Not only looking at sheer physical violence but drug use as well. It aims to highlight the strength and bravery of the women that are able to walk away from those situations, knowing the likely consequences if they were caught by their abusive partners. That is the focus of A Vigilante; a contemplative look at the varying degrees of domestic abuse, the long-term effects that it can have, and the benefits of escaping that abusive relationship.
Structurally, you can tell that this is Daggar-Nickson's directorial debut (Sarah also wrote the screenplay). While the first two acts are measured and deliberate, the drama soon devolves into the generic revenge thriller genre in the third act. It rushes into a scenario that wasn't fully set-up and then rushes through without giving enough time for a satisfying payoff at the end. An absolute mess of a conclusion, that isn't helped by a non-linear narrative that doesn't communicate the timeline very well. The transformation into a strong-willed, well-trained vigilante is hinted at, but not shown.
A Vigilante is no popcorn flick. Its all about the emotion and pain that women and children go through because of domestic abuse. There is a darkness to it that can be difficult to watch at times, but Olivia Wilde does a phenomenal job. Just bear in mind, that this is a low energy film.