Directed by Michael Roemer
USA | 1984 | Fiction | 118 min | English
Film Source: The Film Desk
Sponsored by: Bob Summers
Deprived of a proper release in 1984, Michael Roemer’s domestic drama of women in trouble is only now getting the audience it deserves. Following his belatedly lauded Nothing But a Man (1964) and The Plot Against Harry (1971), Vengeance Is Mine further cements Roemer’s reputation as a consistently incisive and sharp-elbowed observer of the American condition, with a focus on people rather than types. In Vengeance Is Mine, Jo’s (Brooke Adams) closest relationships—those with her mother and husband—are fraught and riven with pain. She glimpses a chance at redemption when she befriends fourteen-year-old Jackie (Ari Meyers) whose parents are going through an ugly divorce. Inevitably, Jo gets in too deep, leading to a final confrontation with Jackie’s mother (Trish Van Devere) worthy of the film’s hard-boiled title. ~TW