Either way, the thing to know about “Retaliation” (originally titled “Romans”) is its creators go to great lengths to shock viewers into understanding what’s really going on with Malcolm. So most conversations in “Retaliation” are as oppressive and loveless as the movie’s sad and programmatic sex acts (doggy-style sex after three minutes; cyber-sex with the lights out before the 22-minute mark; more sex from behind five minutes later, this time in a pub cellar).
Some relief ostensibly arrives later on, when Malcolm finally confronts Jimmy. But the makers of “Retaliation” soon go back to pushing viewers’ buttons, which makes it even harder to stomach their flailing pseudo-seriousness. “Retaliation” may be effectively provocative, but only because its creators put more effort into upsetting viewers than converting us.
Granted, much of Malcolm’s story feels like a defense of his disturbing and inexplicable behavior. He’s not comfortable talking to anybody about what happened, especially not his mother (Anne Reid), a prim and anxious older woman who chides her son about his symbolically freighted day job: knocking down churches. "There's a lot of churches,” she says. “You won't be able to knock 'em all down.” Malcolm understandably doesn’t know how to respond to his mother.
Malcolm is often defined by his violent behavior, presumably because he’s on the verge of a personal breakthrough. But almost everything in “Retaliation” feels like an empty provocation, so pub dweller Joe (Alex Ferns) talks ups Malky’s glory days as a regular bar-fighting character. And love interest Emma (Janet Montgomery) complains about “f**ing [Malcolm] in a dirty pub cellar”: “I mean, you look like you, but you're not you. I don't even know you.”
Malcolm threatens to beat up a pair of rowdy Millennials while he shops for food with his mum. He owns a small mallet with his nickname, “Malky,” engraved on its shaft. Malcolm also brawls with another rape victim, with an even more sordid backstory, in a church. Which leads to a speech about a rape and a beheading. “You know how heavy a severed head is” is another line of dialogue from “Retaliation.”
Malcolm sometimes shows signs of human warmth, though even these scenes are somehow both underwhelming and ham-fisted. In one scene, Malcolm bumps into a young boy who may or may not be his inner child. In another, Malcolm stares at the raindrops on his car windshield after Emma dumps him. In a third scene, Malcolm carefully takes down a wooden effigy of Christ from a church altar. I’ve never felt more concerned for a religious icon’s safety.
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