Though it stages itself as a run of the mill “vigilante revenge with a feminine twist”, it honestly tells its story quite well with dedicated heart and some appreciated visual aplomb. A large chunk of this film is devoted to our heroine protagonist. A damaged soldier, on the brink of drug dependency, emotionally isolated, and racked with PTSD. This is allowed to foster and grow, not just a tossed away expository preamble. It's sad, but real characters are so often ignored in these films that when one is paid any type of lip service, it feels like an extraordinary achievement. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Olga Kurylenko is giving her best performance in memory. She displays strength intertwined with fragility. She is damaged and obviously a ghost of the pre-war woman she was. She utilizes her physicality well, but lets her entire body do the talking, from her glassy eyes, her shaking hands, or her badass fighting feet. She is one of the more felt action presences in a while.
The fight scenes lack verbose expert choreography or varied fascinating cinematography, but excel in realism and effectiveness. These are down and dirty gritty affairs. There aren’t one punch knockouts, Matrix krav maga magic, or superhero flamboyance. It is scrappy, a little sloppy, and painfully impactful. A hard dose of brutality over frills and fu.
As for the look of the film, I must applaud the director Leclercq and cinematographer Brecht Goyvaerts. The staging and camera work provides unspoken emotional impact. There is a particular war combat scene of an explosion that is truly fantastic and catches your attention straightaway. Excellently executed and believably resonant with the environment & human carnage. They do a fine job of not using crutches that lesser work might focus on, allowing for a variety of imagery, lighting, and angles. It has some visual panache that lets subtly exist along with the explosions and squibs.
It might miss out on some story details or bigger conspiratorial machinations, but I also appreciate that a low level vigilante wouldn’t get involved with corrupt cops or diplomatic spy disputes. A more expansive plot, deeper characters, and a bit more going on and I think it could really have delivered something special. This is a push forward to finality, with better than expected acting, action, and ambience.