A rallying call for survivors to share their stories, driven by a fearless performance from Olivia Wilde
The 2018 edition of the SXSW Conference and Festivals is here, and the Cinapse team is on the ground, covering all things film.
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SXSW 2018 has seen a tilt towards better representation for female voices. Not just on screen, but behind the camera too. With this welcome shift comes a new freshness for various genres. The revenge thriller has seen much attention over the years, and is well represented here in Sarah Daggar-Nickson’s directorial debut, but her guiding hand, coupled with a fearless lead performance from Olivia Wilde, give it a different level of nuance, perspective, and potency.
Sadie (Wilde) is a survivor. We initially learn little about her past, but are immediately immersed in her present. Preparing a disguise in a grimy hotel room, before traveling to a family home, there helping an abused housewife not only eject her husband from her life, but lock down ownership of the family home and a sizable chunk of the financial assets too. Sadie takes a minimal payment, enough to live off until her next good Samaritan act. We’re then immersed in her routine. Moving from cheap hotel to cheap hotel, engaging in intense physical training, something that serves her well when a more direct action is required to move these abusers on. She receives messages on her phone from women, given her details through various support groups. It’s a life punctuated by moments where grief consumes her, triggered by a sight or song from her past. Something that reaffirms her to her cause, but reminds her about her abuse and unresolved issues that Sadie is determined to eventually confront.
A Vigilante is a film that leans into genre fare without wallowing in it. It’s more drama than thriller, and while it dulls the visceral edge you may expect, the emotional beats land all the harder. The film is built around Sadie devoting herself to being a weapon for change, dipping into the lives of these people, while also weaving in scenes of support groups with survivors sharing their equally harrowing tales. It’s smartly constructed, crafting insight into how this abuse builds and how it traps people, physically and psychologically. It is restrained when it comes to the violence Sadie inflicts; it’s mostly offscreen, but it does bring grim satisfaction. It’s not about torturing these people, it’s about the endgame, about justice, and getting a message across. There is balance here too, in that it doesn’t depict these abusers to be just men responsible for acts of physical and psychological violence. One scene shows Sadie freeing two young boys from an abusive mother, bonding with the eldest and engaging in a conversation about the acts of his mother and people like her. It’s a doubly important scene in that it marks the beginning of opening up this character and her past to the audience. The film carefully drips information about her past before a turn in the tale where she bares all at a support group. It’s an emotionally raw moment and one that sees what follows hewing more closely to traditional genre fare, bringing her face to face with what drives her crusade. While the transition to the final act is a little muddled, and ends up being more derivative than what precedes it, it still brings a craft and intensity that matches the buildup.
Practically every frame of the film rests on Olivia Wilde’s shoulders, and she turns in a truly raw, genuine, and affecting performance. It’s as if she expels all her reserves in achieving this character, through expressions, body language, and pained tones, all conveying her fury and depths of her grief. Morgan Spector delivers a chilling performance as her husband, but the real standouts here are real women, who having suffered domestic abuse, consulted with Daggar-Nickson about the production, and also step in front of the camera bring their stories to the support group scenes. It imbues the film with an emotional authenticity, a weight, and also an inspirational quality.
It’s this aspect of the film that speaks to its core, highlighting the need to speak up and share stories. It’s the only way to find true strength and effect change. Each woman with these groups is as strong as Sadie, they just show it in a different way. It’s a mantra that tempers the revenge element into a more satisfying and considered piece. One that showcases the remarkable talents of Sarah Daggar-Nickson and Olivia Wilde, while adding to the growing movement against abusive behavior, another group of voices calling time’s up!