Blood Father

Blood Father casts Mel Gibson as John Link, a tattoo artist with a violent past who is forced to spring into action after his wayward daughter (Erin Moriarty’s Lydia) runs afoul of vicious, blood-thirsty drug dealers (including Diego Luna’s Jonah). It’s an irresistibly gritty and pared-down premise that would seem to lend itself naturally to a fast-paced thrill-ride, and yet director Jean-François Richet, working from Peter Craig and Andrea Berloff’s screenplay, proves unable to infuse Blood Father with the driving momentum that one might’ve expected – with the movie, for the most part, lurching from scene to scene with all the grace of an elephant at the ballet. The film’s less-than-engrossing atmosphere is especially disappointing given the immensely engrossing nature of Gibson’s work here, as the actor, sporting an admittedly astonishing beard, delivers an engaging, tough-as-nails performance that remains a constant highlight within the otherwise middling proceedings. (It’s worth noting, too, that Richet does an effective job of transforming Blood Father‘s scarce action sequences into riveting, brutal set pieces, with, especially, an interlude set in and around a car standing as an obvious high-water-mark for the movie.) It is, in the end, impossible to label Blood Father as anything less than a massive missed opportunity, with the effectiveness of the movie’s individual elements ultimately unable to gel into a cohesive, consistent whole.

** out of ****