Mercy Road Review
Stylish and suitably disorientating, if somewhat predictable, this low budget high concept feature makes the most of what it’s got.
Tom (Luke Bracey) flees a murder scene and takes to the streets in his vehicle. Contained almost entirely in his car, the film follows him as he speaks to The Associate (Toby Jones) on the phone - a man brought in to manage his ‘situation’. As the police try and get in touch with him about the whereabouts of his daughter, his wife Terri (Alex Malone) first tries to talk him down and then follows his rage against an abusive stepfather, and The Associate continues to negotiate repayment for his actions, Tom has to work out what is real and what isn’t.
Directed by John Curran, Mercy Road is a sort of Sin City cross Locke, focussed on an unreliable narrator fresh off what seems to be the murder of his ex-wife’s new partner. As things take progressive turns for the worst, it’s not hard to see where this road leads. But that’s not to say it isn’t an enjoyable ride.
Luke Bracey brings a sort of frenetic energy to his performance as Tom. He plays into the wild camera angles and the sort of insanity of the piece, throwing wild screams, eyes wide and terror filled. The whole performance plays to the rafters. Compared with Tom Hardy in Locke, this is an exercise in excess.
Visually, the piece is very much the sort of desaturated aesthetic of something like Sin City. Camera angles are wild, the car feels like it is bulging off the screen at certain points, and the spider is truly creepy. While you can feel the budgetary constraints of such a piece, the filmmakers have made these constraints work for them in creating a highly stylised concept piece that plays to its strengths.
Ultimately, Mercy Road winds up in a place that you sort of expect from the start. But while it isn’t particularly surprising, it is certainly worth the journey.
