Directors: Eshom Nelms, Ian Nelms
Writer: Jonathan Easly
Stars: Orlando Bloom, Andie MacDowell, Garret Dillahunt
Synopsis: A reformed criminal tries to live an honest life, when his past catches up with him and he his forced to do whatever it takes to protect his family.
A tattooed and shirtless Orlando Bloom emerges from his cabin in the woods, he lights up a smoke and grimaces. Immediately, he commences what we presume is his daily routine of push-ups and pull ups before going about his work on the family farm. This opening scene does a solid job of indicating what sort of world we are going to inhabit in Red Right Hand. Zero frills, stripped back, and, above all, gritty.
Cash (Bloom) is a reformed alcoholic and drug addict with a past as an enforcer for the local crime boss, Big Cat (Andie MacDowell in fine scenery chewing form). Now going straight, Cash lives a clean life helping out on his Brother-in-law’s farm and being the doting uncle to his teenage niece, a capable bookworm with a bright future.
As is often the case in films like this, the farm runs into financial trouble and Cash’s Brother-in-law struggles to pay back a loan to Big Cat. If Cash wants to help his family out, all he has to do is come back in to the fold for three more jobs. Three jobs and he is out, once and for all. Of course, things don’t quite go to plan and Cash comes to blows with Big Cat and her litter of hillbilly enforcers.
The plot of Red Right Hand is pretty familiar territory then. In fact, I would go so far as to say there is nothing on screen here that you haven’t seen done elsewhere. For the most part, however, that’s not a problem. Audiences sitting down to watch this are unlikely to be looking for innovation or thought provoking filmmaking. What we are looking for is a likeable protagonist, a compelling villain, and good enough action sequences to keep us entertained through the runtime. For the most part, Red Right Hand delivers on these minimal requirements.
Bloom does a serviceable job as Cash. He certainly looks the part and to my untrained ear, he seems to do pretty well with the Southern accent required. It’s nice to see him playing against type, especially compared to the roles that marked his early career. He plays it very straight, however. It’s unclear what is down to the script and what is performance, but Cash is quite one dimensional. You get the impression that Bloom was reaching for a more naturalistic, down to earth performance, but compared with the more exaggerated Big Cat of his co-star MacDowell, Cash ends up coming off a little bland.
So how about those action scenes? For the most part they land, and there are one or two genuinely gripping moments where it’s not clear exactly how the scene will play out. By the end of the film there is a pretty extensive body count but it never crosses the line into feeling frivolous. Each death feels sufficiently weighty, and the stakes throughout are high. Of course, the end is never really in doubt, with good triumphing over evil, as it always does in this kind of film, but that triumph does not come cheaply.
The biggest complaint I have for Red Right Hand is that it feels like it was only a scene or two away from being more than a down the line genre movie. For example, much of the plot centers on the reformed Cash having found God as an important part of his sobriety. However, he never seems to really wrestle with the fact that he is committing a mortal sin by taking out Big Cat’s gang. It’s not the sort of detail the plot demands, but it could be something that would elevate this beyond its genre conventions. For the most part, all of the characters end the film the same people as they started it, assuming that is that they made it as far as the end credits.
Red Right Hand is a solid genre movie. It’s well put together and successfully takes the audience through some gripping sequences. At times it comes close to being more than just solid but just doesn’t quite seem to have enough confidence in itself to stretch beyond its genre trappings, which is a bit of a shame.
