FanTasia 2010: Love hurts - 'Red, White & Blue'

By now you know the story. Erica [Amanda Fuller] does chores around a boarding house by day to earn her keep. At night she goes from bar to bar, around the city of Austin, looking for men to hook up with for sex. Men like Franki [Marc Senter], a young musician living the dream. But it's just sex. Nothing else except for a few moments of fleeting physical interaction and then she's gone. 

Then Nate [Noah Taylor] shows up at the boarding home and he expresses a keen interest in Erica. A war veteran staying in town for however long he stays Erica finds the attention unnerving yet intriguing. She does not shy away from him despite his sharing of a troubled youth right off the hop. 

But Erica does not get close to any man. Yet, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to Nate. But, if she opens up to him then her dark and sordid past will haunt them both and pull their relationship into a downward spiral they may not be able to emerge from...

Too much has been said about the game changer in this film that I won't say anything about it. But it is the catalyst that gets the shitstorm thundering in from the horizon. As Frankie loses control Nate grabs control by the throat and simply does not let go until his personal vendetta had been accomplished.

The violence at the end of this film is not a reward for being patient and committed to the story that Rumley wants to tell. Rumley has wisely chosen to refrain from being indulgent is his framing and depiction of the violence. He simply offers enough to his audience, purposely staying away from gratuitous scenes of violence, that we have no choice but to fill in the blanks. There is no enjoyment in the violence on the screen. It is not torture porn. It is simply torturous and a punishing end to a fateful love story.  

I'm so pleased with myself when I made my own connection with Soderbergh's 'The Limey'. Mainly in terms of scene transition and visuals; how Rumley structured the narrative. And in hindsight the similarities in the story about revenge, but I'm merely making that connection the day after. And to hear Rumley cite it as an influence? It's not often that I am right and I'm not going to go call my mom and tell her the good news but sometimes I do get it and it also is affirming to Rumley that one of his influences had not gone unnoticed. Kudos to him and his editor because I absolutely fell in love with the pacing of this film, how Rumley got the point across in short simple bursts but it never felt rushed. And damn good work telling a character's story within those short and concise bursts. The ability to say so much in a short amount of time is a great feat indeed. 

Though some may have not been so much convinced by Senter I liked him and there is no denying that Fuller and Taylor are spot-on incredible in their roles. What makes Fuller's Erica all the more rewarding is finding out during the Q&A that she got the role of Erica on a Friday and was filming the next Monday! Literally no time to find your motivations, muses, and so forth but the transformation was incredible. Erica has been rolled up wet and left to dry that the emotional wrinkles are clearly evident. Taylor's Nate is simply frightening. From the first introduction to the final shots there is no misunderstanding his purpose; the straightest arrow often hits the target the truest. 

Red, White & Blue is a harrowing love story and a mesmerizing revenge thriller. I believe Rumley's film is a telling tale of how deeply love burrows into one's soul and how deeply it hurts when that love is lost and ripped from it. It unleashes a torrent of whatever deep and dark emotions have been smothered by it. You rip the heart out of a war veteran with a job offer from the CIA you have to believe that you're pulling the cork on a magnum of rage and hurt.