Mark Reviews Movies: DEVIL'S PEAK

Devil's Peak, Screen Media Films

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | February 16, 2023

Here's a movie that wallows in misery and the constant threat of violence, yet director Ben Young's Devil's Peak doesn't give us the sense of hope or the spark of humanity that it needs for this story to come out the other end of things. The movie desperately wants to, as it watches a young man enact a desperate plan to escape his upbringing and his surroundings, but the mechanics of an unconvincing thriller gradually overshadow the attempted purpose of this tale.

It's set in a remote area near the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, and there, we meet Jacob McNeely (Hopper Penn), the son of a local crime lord—himself the son of a notorious figure in the area—and a drug-addicted mother. The whole thing starts with cliché after cliché, and the rest of the plot follows suit.

Even before that, the narrative itself begins with a clichéd flash-forward in time to some point during the third act, as Jacob prepares for a standoff with a rifle on a country road against an unknown but approaching threat. By the time we actually realize what's going on in this scene, it's more amusing that Young so carefully ensures that the camera shoots Jacob from the waist up, lest we're initially distracted by something that would make even less sense without any context.

Anyway, Jacob's father is the ruthless Charlie, played by Billy Bob Thornton with a one-note level of intensity that's at least more convincing than the one-tone dye coloring his goatee. He's fine here, in other words, for a role that just needs to make us constantly believe that Charlie could snap and injure or kill someone at any given moment to set the plot in motion or send off in a slightly different direction. The man feels like such a plot device that it's little surprise it actually turns out he's walking around with a key piece of information for said plot to continue forward tattooed on his body.

Before any of that, though, Young and screenwriter Robert Knott, adapting David Joy's novel Where All Light Tends to Go, offer up a little bit of promise in terms of these characters and the overall tone of the material. Jacob is lonely and trapped in his circumstances, expected by his father to play some kind of role in the unofficial family business, sheltered by an on-the-book auto shop. Jacob's a good kid, though, in part because he has been mainly raised by his mother Virgie, who's played by Robin Wright—Penn's real-life mother, although the potential of that casting isn't fulfilled for reasons that will become clearer once the actual story gets moving.

Because his dad is who he is and his mother has had troubles with addiction, Jacob hasn't had much in terms of family. The local Sheriff (played by Jackie Earle Haley) treats Jacob like a son, offering some encouragement about having potential. Additionally, he has a new girlfriend named Maggie (Katelyn Nacon), the stepdaughter of disapproving gubernatorial candidate Bo (Brian d'Arcy James), and a couple of friends (played by David Kallaway and Jared Bankens) who are "as close to kin" as Jacob has ever known. Those two were meant to kill someone who got on Charlie's bad side, but when the intended victims survives and ends up in a coma, Charlie turns them into an example of just how ruthless and unforgiving he can be.

That leaves Jacob even more alone—and suddenly considering the possibility of getting away from his old man and this place over which he holds so much control. For much of the setup, Young does focus on conveying the overwhelming, claustrophobic feeling of Jacob's existence—dangling by threads of crime, addiction, pressure, expectations, assumptions, and, above all else, the whims of his mercurial father.

Inevitably, though, a more straightforward and predictable plot starts in motion. Charlie and Jacob arrive at an impasse, because the father wants the son to become something the young man doesn't want to be. Jacob decides to help Maggie escape her own familial predicament (The stepfather is caught up in gambling and corruption), coming up with a plan to obtain the money his father owes him. Some more people end up dead under suspicious or obviously homicidal circumstances, and maybe it has to do with Charlie or an aggressive deputy (played by Harrison Gilbertson) or the shady politician or any of the other few characters or so who survive until the climactic chase/standoff/shoot that arrives like clockwork.

Amidst all the scheming and stealing and shooting and running in one's underwear in the woods on account of laughably poor planning, Devil's Peak loses sight of its characters, as well as the mood of its setup and setting. By the end of the movie, it feels as if we've been submerged in pain and senseless violence just for the attempted thrills of some action and a couple of plot twists.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products

Buy the Book

Buy the Book (Kindle Edition)