RED RIGHT HAND - Mark Reviews Movies

Red Right Hand, Magnolia Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 22, 2024

There's nothing that distinguishes Red Right Hand from any other rural, backwoods crime thriller, and if there is a formula to such stories, Jonathan Easley's screenplay matches it to the letter. Set somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains, a reformed criminal is unwittingly and unwillingly pulled back into his old life in order to save his family and their farm. He doesn't want to do this, of course, but the alternative is that he, his loved ones, or all of them will be murdered by a villainous, pitiless crime boss.

Those are the bones of the plot, and every other detail of the narrative doesn't possess much more than the basics, either. Fraternal co-directors Eshom and Ian Nelms' movie isn't entirely a wash, though, because it means business when it has to, creating a sense of doom in the face of antagonists who are willing and will do anything to maintain power and control, and the performances are sincere enough in the face of such thin material.

Our man is Cash (Orlando Bloom), who lives in a cabin on the property of a farm that now belongs to his brother-in-law Finney (Scott Haze). Cash's sister died of an overdose a few years prior, and her death was a wake-up call for him.

He was involved with a local criminal operation and addicted to alcohol and various narcotics, but after missing his sister's funeral because he was too out of it on assorted substances, Cash realized he needed to drop the criminal life and beat his addiction, unless he wanted to end up the same way. The eponymous appendage, a hand covered in burn scars, is the result of the boss' way of making sure a member of the organization really, really wants out.

That is, for the most part, the extent of who Cash is, and it's all the script really has time to develop. Almost immediately after meeting him and his surviving family, the plot starts, only occasionally to relent. Finney got a loan from the crime boss in order to pay off a previous, more legitimate loan to the bank. Because of Cash's history with the group, the leader wants to make a quick example of the brother-in-law for anyone who might think about trying to get out of this business.

The boss, by the way, is known as Big Cat, and she's the sort of character who might be laughable or even bordering on parody, if not for the fact that she's played by Andie MacDowell. MacDowell skirts the line between genuinely intimidating and over-the-top evil with relish, and there's really no other way to approach a character who exists solely for the purpose of acting as a direct or lingering threat. The screenplay gives her pieces of home-cooked wisdom, as well as so many lines referencing some variation of "these hills" that one wonders if Easley challenged himself to include the phrasing in every one of her scenes.

She's a tough customer, sending goons to the farm to intimidate Finney, threaten his daughter Savannah (Chapel Oaks), beat the guy, and stage a mock execution to ensure he gets the message. Because the widower has turned to alcohol after his wife's death, he mostly does, but with any hopes of income having to wait, Cash makes a deal with Big Cat. He'll do three jobs for her, and when they're finished, she'll forgive Finney's debt and leave him alone for good. Since he doesn't trust her, Cash also counts on a secondary plan to get enough evidence for the local cops to take down Big Cat.

The rest of this is more of the usual, too. The cops can't be trusted, because Big Cat's reach is long and insidious. The jobs put Cash in plenty of danger and make him an accomplice to running drugs and multiple killings. Finney starts the process of sobriety, and for as much still and stoic and severe energy Bloom brings to the role, there's a softer streak to Cash in how he supports his brother-in-law, treats his niece, and takes the potential loss of even more family to his already-shattered heart. It's fine work that one wishes were allowed to dig a bit deeper.

The necessities of the plot, though, prevent that for Cash, everyone else, and whatever notions of grief and guilt are right there to be mined (Garret Dillahunt plays the local preacher, and his role in the third act cements the movie's tendency to evade such thematic concerns in favor of action). Instead, matters become worse for Cash and his family. Big Cat proves—in a grisly scene of torture makes all of the preceding and yet-to-come violence look tame by comparison—she's neither to be trusted nor the type of person who lets go easily. It's all building toward a final showdown, and to the directors' credit, that inevitable sequence possesses a few layers of staging.

There's still no avoiding, though, that the scene, like so much about the story, is inevitable. Red Right Hand knows exactly what it wants to do and does it well enough. It's simply that there's not much for the filmmakers to do within the limited ambitions of the movie's story and characters.

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