Mercy Road - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Mercy Road



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
As always, I’m ever the skeptic when it comes to Well Go USA’s “non Asian” films that they distribute as they tend to be hit or miss. Sometimes we get an amazing psychological thriller, other times it’s a really bad Russian drama with painful acting. However, there’s every once in a while a decent middle ground where we get a film that is better than it has any right to be, but at the same time isn’t exactly a stunner either. Such is the case with John Curran’s Mercy Road, a capable one or two person thriller that builds up an incredible amount of tension in the first 2 acts, but stumbles a bit bringing things home.

The story is actually rather inventive and cool, with our “protagonist” Tom (Luke Bracey) hastily getting in his work truck all covered with blood and bruises, looking around for his daughter in a panicked state of mind. It’s pretty obvious from the first few minutes that Tom has done something horrible in his current state, but is looking for his daughter Ruby (Martha Kate Morgan). Frantically calling around to her friends the conversation between Tom and his callers lays out a horrible scenario. Ruby has been kidnapped by somebody after Tom found out about his daughter being “assaulted” by her new Step Dad. To make matters worse the people who have kidnapped her has told Tom to simply keep driving and to partake in several sordid tasks to hopefully free the girl from her imprisonment.

The plot itself seems rather derivative (father looking to save his daughter), but it’s really the setting and the mood that make this film a bumpy and tense ride. The film itself takes place almost ENTIRELY inside of the cab of Tom’s truck, with him talking on the phone with various people including the “the associate” (Toby Jones) who is negotiating all of these things as we speak. The plot itself IS a bit derivative, but Curran keeps things moving so fast in the 86 minute flick that you don’t pick up on many of the plot holes until you watch it a second time. But that DOES keep the audience glued to the seat at all times.

I can’t give anything away, but needless to say the first 2 acts of the film kept me actively engaged with rapt attention. Luke Bracey does a great job of portraying a man on the edge of sanity, running a tight balancing act between tight jawed hero looking to save his daughter, and a psychiatric patient on the verge of collapse. However, the last 20 ish minutes are when Curran starts to wrap up the plot and unveils a few more twists along the way that don’t always work out. The ending itself is designed to be enigmatic and confusing on purpose, almost as a distraction from what’s come before and to intentionally have the audience discussing about the film the next day. Unfortunately it’s not handled perfectly, so plot points get wrapped up fast and the film heavily hints that there is something going on that we’re not seeing for the entire run time, but never really drives that point home. Instead it rather hints at the subject material and lets the audience make up their mind. Optimally that tactic is used to have the audience chewing on what they saw, but here it just tends to confuse and leave more questions than it has answers for.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

According to what little information I could find in the credits and on IMDB it appears that Mercy Road is shot using some form of the Arri Alexa cameras and most likely finished at a 2K DI for the home video release. Transferred with a 1.78:1 AVC encode, the Blu-ray looks rather nice to the naked eye despite some heavy grading going on. Shot entirely at night and inside the cab of a car, the film is bathed in heavy blues with a gray tinge to everything, and pretty much every color just muted and desaturated to death. This gives it a bleak and dreary look, but one that showcases more than exemplary detail levels. Tom’s facial pores and the greasy looking face are shown with razor sharp clarity, and little things like the massive spider that crawls up Tom’s arm look impeccable. However, since it’s shot at night and this IS Well Go USA, there’s some pretty heavy banding going on, and it’s pretty consistent the whole film.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track isn’t exactly a showy track due to the fact that it’s constrained to the interior of a truck cab, but it does well enough with strong vocals and the ambient sounds of the tense scoring throughout to bring out all the other channels. There’s a few minor blips on the radar in terms of bass (the helo scene for example), otherwise it’s left mostly to the music to bring out the low end. Simple, effective, and very clean, the 5.1 mix does quite well with the simple effects used for the film.












Extras:

• Trailer

Final Score:
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Curran’s tightly run and claustrophobic thriller is not exactly top notch, but it is NEVER boring. The film runs at a breakneck pace towards the ending with a solid performance by both Jones and Bracey alike thin dual lead roles (even though we only see Toby for a few moments). The thriller itself is fun enough for a friday night watch, but not one that I’d really go all out and watch more than once or twice as there’s not as much meat on the bones as I’d like. The Blu-ray looks and sounds good though, with the typical anemic Well Go USA extras on board (e.g…. a theatrical trailer and the Well Go USA previews before the film starts). Solid watch at least once in my opinion though.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Luke Bracey Huw Higginson, Toby Jones
Directed by: John Curran
Written by: John Curran, Jesse Heffring, Christopher Lee Pelletier
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Spanish DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 86 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: December 12th, 2023

Recommendation: Decent Watch