Mark Reviews Movies: MEASURE OF REVENGE

Measure of Revenge, Vertical Entertainment

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 17, 2022

Rarely has the curse of the Scottish play felt as real as it does in Measure of Revenge, as the movie begins with scenes from a stage production of William Shakespeare's tragedy (The title won't be besmirched with its connection to this movie any further in this review). With screenwriter Kenny Walakandou's ridiculous plot and Melissa Leo's ham-and-cheese performance, the whole thing is pretty much doomed from then.

Leo plays Lillian, a famous actor of stage and screen (now relegated to playing one of the witches in the show but receiving top—and, indeed, the only—billing on the poster, for some unknowable reason). Her son Curtis (Jake Weary), a famous musician, gets out of rehab for his drug addiction, and soon after, he and his girlfriend (played by Jasmine Carmichael) are dead, on account of what the police declare an accidental overdose.

Lillian doesn't believe it, so she bypasses the cops and starts investigating Curtis' death on her own. When her son's drug dealer and one-time lover Taz (Bella Thorne) points her in the direction of people who would sell the deadly drug, Lillian gradually uncovers what appears to be a conspiracy of personal friends and professional acquaintances who surely killed Curtis.

Theoretically, there's nothing wrong with story on a foundational level—except that it's familiar, shallow, and awkwardly rushed (In fact, the story skips our protagonist learning about her son's death or mourning it in any way). Everything more or less falls apart when we learn Lillian's big plan for revenge.

She rents a theater, directs a production of a different Shakespeare tragedy, and casts herself in small role with a big gap in appearances. With that time offstage, she sneaks out in order kill the people responsible for Curtis' death. There's a drug dealer, nicknamed "the Gardener" (Jamie Jackson) because it's rumored he killed somebody with gardening tools (not because he owns a flower shop), and there are also Curtis' bandmates, who don't appreciate being left behind, and maybe the band's record label head (played by Kevin Corrigan), who's looking to profit from a memorial album.

Lillian goes about her murderous business while in costume. Additionally, she does so without making much of an effort to hide herself from the public, which means her alibi is even more useless than she imagines (It's not a discreet disguise, either, since she's playing the ghost of the elder Hamlet, and when did Lillian even have the time to oversee a feminist re-imagining of that play while grieving and scheming, anyway?).

Even the police detective, played by Michael Potts, on the case makes a joke about having "time to kill" backstage, which just helps solidify that everyone in the story lacks basic awareness and judgment. He's a fan of Lillian's work, by the way, which is convenient for taking suspicion away from her—especially since the only play she appeared in that the cop doesn't know would have given away one of her murders.

There are dumber complications, such as the theater owner (played by Adrian Martinez) taking her unprofessionalism personally and shutting down the show, meaning that Walakandou destroys the only gimmick—as dunderheaded and unlikely as it may be—this story has. Also, has it yet been mentioned that Lillian has visions of her past characters, egging on her unforgiving plans? The idea, perhaps, is that this seemingly ordinary woman contains angry and vengeful multitudes, but it's mostly just a way to add the unconvincing suspense of an unreliable perspective.

Leo's work laughably shifts to frantically hysterical on apparent whims, as if an increase in volume is a suitable replacement for the absence of characterization. Meanwhile, first-time director Peyfa possesses little understanding of suspense (A ticking stopwatch doesn't help distract from how idiotic the killings are, anyway), pacing (Flashbacks interrupt the minimal flow of the plot, but to be fair, Walakandou doesn't provide much information within them), or staging (The murders are filled with so many delays and bad decisions that it's a shock Lillian accomplishes anything).

None of this is logical or consistent, but the filmmakers leave the biggest head-scratcher for the finale, which seems to be attempting a big, final twist but offers no context to what that revelation actually is. There's incompetence, and then there's whatever Measure of Revenge is doing.

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