Paul (Wade Dienert) has long been estranged from his daughter Liz
(Danielle West) - to suddenly receive a phonecall that Liz was found by the
roadside, and she has obviously been brutally raped. Now Paul could
beat his own head in, because he had been at the bar she has last been
seen in (and gotten drunk in despite being underage), but ignored her ... and
left early. But of course now she needs someone (her mum has died several
years ago) he takes her in and tries
to make her feel better as good as he can - to initially fail each and
every step along the way. So eventually, he puts his attention on
finding out who raped Liz, who can't remember because she was drunk and
slipped some drugs, and the only way to find out he figures it to listen
in on her talking in her sleep ... and the first name that comes up is
that of Teddy (Matthew Tousignant), barman at the place Liz got wasted
prior to the rape. In his rage, Paul lures him into an ambush and kills
him in a quite brutal way, and then he makes his body and his corpse
disappear. He thinks he has done the right thing, but then Liz - unaware
of the murder - tells him that whoever raped her sure wasn't Teddy ... Paul
later suspects Liz's ex Nick (Mike Janisch), whom he beats up good at one
occasion, despite Liz insisting it wasn't him either. Paul finds himself
at a dead end when it comes to exacting revenge, so he confides in Doug
(Andrew Lindsay), his very best friend, who a bit too willingly becomes
his accomplice. And there's one detail Paul just fails to acknowledge -
Doug was present on that fateful evening ... Considering this
is an at times very violent rape-revenge flick (without showing any of the
rape though), this is also a very thoughtful movie, spending at least as
much screentime on examining the ever changing relationship between father
and estranged daughter (which is pretty much the trigger of everything
anyways) as it does on the actual acts of violence - and if that sounds
boring in writing (in my writing anyways), it isn't on film, because the
whole thing is well-written, subtly directed and rather beautifully acted,
and it finds the perfect balance between shocks and more serious matters. Recommended,
actually!
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