There comes a time when you see a film and, on an intellectual level, you acknowledge everything about it is quite good.  The acting, the directing, the story, the cinematography.

You acknowledge the film is a fine work, especially given the fact that it has an obviously very low budget and yet…

…and yet, on an emotional level the film simply fails to engage you.

So it is with Blue Ruin, a 2013 release written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier and featuring Macon Blair as Dwight, a man who at the start of the film appears a homeless, aimless derelict.  This all changes when a kindly police officer picks him up and tells him someone is about to be released from prison.

The someone turns out to be Wade Cleland Jr., and over the course of the movie’s opening minutes we realize this individual was sent to jail for killing Dwight’s father and mother.  But things aren’t quite what they seem and Dwight’s act of revenge leads to further revelations…and repercussions.

Again, this film is clearly a skilled piece of work yet for whatever reason I never felt fully engaged with what I was seeing.  In fact, after the first half hour or so I even considered turning the movie off yet stuck with it.

I’m glad I did because the later half of the film proved stronger than the first half and the ultimate resolution had echoes to famous Greek tragedies (which, I have to imagine, the writer/director of the film was clearly aiming for).

But…

I still can’t say the film “grabbed me”.

In the end, I suppose you have to take Blue Ruin for what it is: A good first attempt, on a shoe-string budget, of creating a suspense film.  While I can’t outright recommend the film based on my own reaction to it, I would be lying if I weren’t interested in seeing writer/director Saulnier’s follow up film, Green Room.

I think there’s certainly talent and skill on display within the movie.  I just wish the presentation had grabbed me more.