When Harry's (Brian Petsos) beloved dog Jolly is killed in mysterious circumstances he decides to track down the person responsible for killing his dog with his cousin Cecil (Oscar Isaac).
In England, we are widely considered a nation of dog lover's so in principle a film such as Revenge For Jolly could easily have worked (I'm going to assume that's it's the same story across the pond in America). This could have been a very easy film to like and could have been an easy film for an audience to become involved with, but sadly, for me, it was an awful and ungodly experience.
The initial set up is OK and the narrative establishes Harry as a very lonely person, a man whose best and only friend is a dog - he's a believable character and this aspect of the story is something that many people could easily identify with. Unfortunately, almost everything that follows practically undoes any sympathy that we may have drummed up for the protagonist. Let's look at the problems....
Well for a start, Harry is up to his eyes in debt and is on the run from some heavies (what a great way to undo any sympathy you have with a character). Despite the fact that he's initially set up as a character we can identify with, he then goes on a manhunt to find the person who killed his dog with his cousin Cecil (who isn't as bad as Harry, but is still a character that is very hard to care about). The writers then randomly switch from Cecil and Harry being stone-cold mercenaries on the hunt for Jolly's killers to care-free lads on a night out on the booze (this seems to happen a couple of times throughout the film). It seemed strange that Harry's dog's death was very traumatic to him, but yet he seemed to find it OK to get wasted during his quest to find the killer of his dog. It's billed as a 'Dark Comedy' so perhaps their goofball antics were supposed to act as some form of 'comedic relief' but their antics never made me laugh and despite the fact that the film is only about 80 minutes long I found myself continually seeing how much longer the film had left to go.
The worst part of the film comes with the eventual showdown and all I'll say is that if you're expecting a good pay-off for the unbelievable tedium that you've sat through then you're going to be disappointed. An absolute joke of a film that is easily one of the worst I've seen.
In England, we are widely considered a nation of dog lover's so in principle a film such as Revenge For Jolly could easily have worked (I'm going to assume that's it's the same story across the pond in America). This could have been a very easy film to like and could have been an easy film for an audience to become involved with, but sadly, for me, it was an awful and ungodly experience.
The initial set up is OK and the narrative establishes Harry as a very lonely person, a man whose best and only friend is a dog - he's a believable character and this aspect of the story is something that many people could easily identify with. Unfortunately, almost everything that follows practically undoes any sympathy that we may have drummed up for the protagonist. Let's look at the problems....
Well for a start, Harry is up to his eyes in debt and is on the run from some heavies (what a great way to undo any sympathy you have with a character). Despite the fact that he's initially set up as a character we can identify with, he then goes on a manhunt to find the person who killed his dog with his cousin Cecil (who isn't as bad as Harry, but is still a character that is very hard to care about). The writers then randomly switch from Cecil and Harry being stone-cold mercenaries on the hunt for Jolly's killers to care-free lads on a night out on the booze (this seems to happen a couple of times throughout the film). It seemed strange that Harry's dog's death was very traumatic to him, but yet he seemed to find it OK to get wasted during his quest to find the killer of his dog. It's billed as a 'Dark Comedy' so perhaps their goofball antics were supposed to act as some form of 'comedic relief' but their antics never made me laugh and despite the fact that the film is only about 80 minutes long I found myself continually seeing how much longer the film had left to go.
The worst part of the film comes with the eventual showdown and all I'll say is that if you're expecting a good pay-off for the unbelievable tedium that you've sat through then you're going to be disappointed. An absolute joke of a film that is easily one of the worst I've seen.