Mon 9 Mar 2015
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: MISS MEADOWS (2014).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[9] Comments
MISS MEADOWS. Entertainment One, 2014. Katie Holmes, James Badge Dale, Callan Mulvey, Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place, Ava Kolker. Written and directed by Karen Leigh Hopkins.
Miss Meadows, starring the very talented Katie Holmes, whose acting skills can’t save the movie from being a complete misfire, is not so much a feature film as it is a quirky premise caught on tape. Imagine a tap-dancing, prim and proper schoolteacher who is also — wait for it – a vigilante killer. She’s quirky, charming, funny, and deadly with a small pistol. She kills the bad guys because, you know, someone has to. Call her a softer, gentler, Charles Bronson.
Intrigued? So was I.
Which is why I decided to watch Miss Meadows in its entirety, unaware that the entire story is the premise. Well, that’s not entirely true. We get subject to an entirely forced love story between Miss Meadows and a law enforcement officer we only get to know as Sheriff (Yes, just Sheriff) and a series of flashbacks that show that Miss Meadows (Holmes) is the way she is because she witnessed her Mom being shot dead when she was an innocent child.
Disclosure: I actually really like revenge and vigilante films and feel that they are continually under-appreciated as a film genre. When they work best, it’s mostly on a visceral level. We empathize with the protagonist, hoping he (or she) will achieve his necessary revenge. We very much want the bad guys to get what’s coming to them. Proportionally, of course. But we also are nuanced thinkers and realize that revenge has to have a cost. (Even Charles Bronson’s character in Death Wish was forced to leave New York at the film’s end).
Case in point: William Lustig’s brilliant Vigilante starring Robert Forster, in which Forster’s character succeeds in avenging the murder of his son, but at the cost of his wife leaving him. In some ways, it’s an exploitative and nihilistic film, but it’s a hell of a good one.
That’s not the case in Miss Meadows, where the gun-toting vigilante ends up with a loving, quirky husband, a child, and a beautiful, large home in the suburbs. If this is meant to be satire or a black comedy, it falls flat. If it is meant to send a message, it’s an entirely nauseating one. Not so much because the bad guys didn’t deserve it, but because the film refuses to engage with the revenge/vigilante film genre in a serious manner and promotes the idea that a quirky premise should hold the viewer’s attention for nearly ninety minutes.
March 9th, 2015 at 11:56 pm
Out of curiosity, dear readers, what would you consider to be the best revenge thrillers/vigilante movies out there?
March 10th, 2015 at 7:40 am
Jonathan,
Kill Bill 1 & 2 come immediately to mind, but I’m sure the list will get much longer by the end of today. Wouldn’t “Point Blank” make this list? If so, I’ll add it.
March 10th, 2015 at 8:04 am
I think POINT BLANK definitely fits the category, and Tarantino’s INGLORIOUS BASTERDS does too. Of older films, I’ve always liked THE BIG HEAT, and I reviewed GET CARTER here on this blog late last year. This only scratches the surface!
March 10th, 2015 at 11:37 am
For anyone who loves this subgenre needs to check out the TV cable channel El Rey.
It has the Shaw Brothers Kung Fu films that must been seen to be believe. It has Grindhouse films, cult horror, spaghetti westerns, and films such as THE OUTFIT (1973) with Robert Duvall.
The channel was created by director/producer Robert Rodriguez originally for Latino males with series such as FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and LUCHA UNDERGROUND, but now makes SPIKE (especially after 9pm when all is unedited) look like HALLMARK.
March 10th, 2015 at 2:08 pm
GET CARTER and THE BIG HEAT would be at the top of any contemporary revenge fantasy films on my list, but this genre covers everything from Batman and the Punisher to any number of comedies like HORRIBLE BOSSES where the heroes act as vigilantes of a sort.
POINT BLANK certainly, Lang’s MAN HUNT if you recognize at the end the hero always meant to kill Hitler. Dick Powell alone did two or three in this category including CRY DANGER and CORNERED. The worm turns theme at the end of GASLIGHT almost qualifies.
I am not a fan of the sub genre of DEATH WISH wannabes like this. The original film and novel were good, but as the series went on the hero became less hero than semi serial killer, less believable and less sympathetic. By the last two films I was rooting for the police to arrest Bronson’s Paul Christopher.
In a good revenge film at some point the hero or heroine has to recognize their quest will destroy them as well as the person they want to punish. It’s just the nature of drama. Like John Wayne’s Ethan in THE SEARCHERS if he is not redeemed in the end he is just a monster.
As I recall this one my reaction wasn’t that it was released, but escaped. Revenge has been a two edged sword since Shakespeare’s Hamlet and John Webster’s play. This never even bothers to question if the heroine can kill so callously and remain untouched by it.
DePalma’s THE UNTOUCHABLES ends up a revenge fantasy (actual fantasy since the end of the film is historical poppycock). DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, the film, is a revenge fantasy, but it mostly seems against George Lazenby rather than Blofield and SPECTRE. KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL proves to be a complex revenge fantasy.
What intrigues me about the genre though is how simple it is to transform the hero into villain even if his actions are justified. Just the slightest change of point of view transforms the nature of the drama drastically. The opposite of the revenge fantasy is the good man who did something wrong in the past and now is being punished by an implacable avenger unhinged by his desire for revenge.
And while we are doing revenge fantasy two of my favorites are THIS MAN MUST DIE based on the Nicholas Blake novel THE BEAST MUST DIE, and Durrenmatt’s END GAME, both playing with the viewers expectations and moral compass. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY is ultimately a revenge fantasy since the villain cuckolded the hero and is killed by the secondary hero he betrayed.
I don’t suppose it would make much of a film, but maybe Frank Sinatra was right: Living well is the best revenge.
March 10th, 2015 at 3:10 pm
One movie that comes to mind is ACT OF VIOLENCE where Robert Ryan’s character sets out from New York to sunny California to hunt down and to kill Van Heflin who is living a picture perfect suburban life. As it turns out though, Heflin has blood on his hands from WW2 and Ryan’s character is out to seek revenge/justice. So who is the hero? Who is the villain? This is a thought provoking film and a beautifully filmed film noir as well. It’s a template for what to do in a revenge thriller, unlike in MISS MEADOWS
Michael, I am a big fan of Rodriguez and am glad that he’s getting these “classics” on the air. The Shaw Brothers series has some great female protagonists seeking revenge.
March 10th, 2015 at 3:13 pm
There is, of course, a whole other “dimension” (pun intended) to revenge thrillers and that is the supernatural revenge thriller: CARRIE immediately comes to mind. She’s sympathetic, having been bullied by her peers and her mother, but by the end, her revenge is so disproportionate that you almost believe she really is the spawn of the Devil. There are, of course, many more such films
March 10th, 2015 at 3:49 pm
ACT OF VIOLENCE is a good one and all the more powerful because either actor was capable of being hero or villain. A fine example of the Western is THE BRAVADOS with Gregory Peck where he hunts down the men who killed his wife only to find at the end he is doing the same thing to one of them that was done to him.
March 10th, 2015 at 5:20 pm
The problem with the Revenge/Vigilante genre is that it is essentially rather limited. The basic plot is Hero wronged/Hero seeks revenge/ Hero gets revenge. There are variations on this, such as the hero discovering that getting revenge is not worth it (either before or after the act). In something like SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Alistair Maclean’s FEAR IS THE KEY the hero gets his revenge but discovers that even after gaining justice his life is still empty.
Films such as THE STING and TV series such as LEVERAGE us the con as a non-violent revenge, where the villain is destroyed by playing on his fatal weakness. The grand-daddy of this sort of story is THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. Fictional avengers such as Simon Templar work best because there is a sort of impersonal quality to their revenge, which somehow allows them to deal out justice without besmirching their soul. Batman and a load of other superheroes have to deal with some terrible injustice, but never reach the point where they actually take a criminal life. The Punisher always came across as rather ridiculous because he could kill with impunity but never suffer from the terrible side-effects of that lifestyle. Only a psychopath could live that sort of life, and psychopaths do not make good heroes.