RED RIGHT HAND (2024) review

written by: Jonathan Easley
produced by: Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Mike Gabrawy, Jason Tamasco, Zak Kristofek & Michelle Lang
directed by: Ian Nelms and Eshom Nelms
rated: not rated
runtime: 111 min.
U.S. release date: February 23, 2024 (theaters & VOD)

It’s a surprise when actors who’ve been around for a while show up in a role they’re not typically known for. Most likely you know they’re in the movie you’re watching, but once they show up they warrant a double take. That’s what I experienced as I watched Orlando Bloom and Andie MacDowell in “Red Right Hand”, the latest movie from brothers, Ian and Eshom Nelms (“Small Town Crime” and “Fatman”). I hate to use the cliched phrase, “as you’ve never seen them!”, but in this case, it’s true. Working off a debut screenplay from Jonathan Easley, the directors have crafted a Kentucky-fried yarn with vivid characters familiar with escalated violence, that just so happens to be set in the Bluegrass State.

Bloom plays Cash, a former addict living in the Appalachian town of Odim County where he looks after his book nerd niece, Savannah (newcomer Chapel Oaks), and helps his brother-in-law, Finney (Scott Haze) look after his deceased sister’s farm. Most of the time, Finney is an unreliable presence, lost in a cocktail of grief, alcoholism, and depression, which is why Cash takes Savannah to church and teaches her how to shoot a rifle – two things everyone grows up doing in this area of America. Finney is also in debt to the local queenpin, Big Cat (McDowell), owing her $100k she lent him to keep the farm and now having no way to pay her back, considering he has no steady income coming in.

Cash’s right hand shows visible burn scars from a time when he was working under Big Cat as her own right-hand enforcer. He had a way of talking to people and also knew a thing or two about taking people out. Now she wants him back to pay off Finney’s debt, requiring him to leave the recent quiet life he’s worked so hard to acquire. To protect Savannah and her father, Cash agrees to the deal with the hidden agenda of bringing down the brutal gangster once and for all. Hoping to receive assistance from Sheriff Hollister (Brian Geraghty) and Deputy Duke Parks (Mo McRae, so excellent in one particularly harrowing scene), but, as expected, Big Cat has her claws in just about everyone in the area.

There’s a sense that Big Cat’s unspoken grasp cripples the entire community. It’s something that can be felt in the local church community, where a pastor named Wilder (a splendid Garret Dillahunt) does his best to offer a place of acceptance and peace for his congregation. The fact that he’s transparent about being a former junkie and hoodlum (and has likely had an encounter or two with Big Cat and her litter), should offer a certain relatable reassurance for certain listeners. At one point, Easley includes snippets of John Milton’s Paradise Lost (which eludes to the movie’s title), which isn’t necessarily something you’d expect to find in an intense and relentless thriller.

This could’ve easily been a cameo role for Dillahunt but in “Red Right Hand”, Easley and the Nelms brothers have a common goal: to give the right characters (and actors) enough on-screen breathing room. The movie benefits from this approach and Dillahunt knows how to calibrate appropriately for the role. His character stands out without his performance drawing too much attention to itself. Due to their roles, the characters Dillahunt and MacDowell play require certain degrees of “bigness”, yet both actors dial their delivery just right. They are always staying in the story being told.

That being said, MacDowell has to have a certain degree of “bigness” here for the whole thing to work. Big Cat has to be an inarguable threat to anyone around her. MacDowell not only knows this but is also all-in. It’s a tightwire act that she carefully walks, somewhere between disturbing and cartoonish. She lands right in the middle, relishing each unsettling scene she’s in. As soon as we start to smirk along with her, she cuts someone’s thumb off or brandishes an automatic rifle like nobody’s business in the climactic showdown at her red-brick mansion on a hill. Again, it’s unlike anything we’ve seen MacDowell do before – she’s just straight-up pure evil – which is what pulls us in a little closer.

Despite being the main character in “Red Right Hand”, Bloom plays a character who would much rather not be the center of attention. Cash is reluctantly pulled back into the darkness he’s fought so hard to separate himself from. While his reputation for violently “taking care of business” remains, Cash’s focus has been, “God. Family. Survival”, with an emphasis on making sure his family survives.

The God part seems reserved for making sure Savannah gets to Sunday worship service. Other than that, Cash isn’t holding on to any devout spiritual tenants, probably due to how his past looms like a shadow. Bloom the actor disappears into the role right from the start. At times, I forgot who was playing Cash, especially since the last time we saw Bloom in Kentucky was for Cameron Crowe’s 2005 rom-com “Elizabethtown”, but primarily due to his scuzzy beard, greased hair, and ripped physique (the latter is established during a set of shirtless push-ups off Cash’s front porch).

The material is more than the kind of “one-man army” vehicles that we see go straight to VOD all the time throughout the year, which is likely one of the reasons Bloom signed on. Yes, it’s something different for him, but overall, “Red Right Hand” is different from what we think it might be.

There’s a handful of ways the movie subverts our expectations and a couple of reasons for that is due to the collaborators the Nelms brothers reunite with here. Cinematographer Johnny Derango and editor Traton Lee, both of whom have worked on their previous movies, work with a synchronicity that is palpable. Between the camera choices and the way in which the movie is cut, “Red Right Hand” offers a surprisingly immersive experience, especially during moments of urgent action and brutal violence.

There’s a scene where Big Cat’s gang overwhelms the church parking lot as the congregation (and Dillahunt’s preacher) exits the building. Cameras swirl in, following rushing vehicles and scurrying people in a frenzy that winds up making us feel like we’re right there and that anything can go wrong. This and other action sequences are easy to follow and make sense to the viewer, which isn’t always accomplished in modern-day filmmaking. As for the brutality of the movie, none of it is gratuitous, but the camera doesn’t shy away from the violence either. It’s usually when violence is inflicted on others by Big Cat herself. I definitely cringed during one uneasy scene in particular and that’s mostly because these moments are sparse. So, when they do come, the jolt is earned.

I doubt Bloom is going to go full action-hero on us after this and for that I’m glad. He has already shown his versatility and this role confirms that’s something he is not only conscious of but striving for. Easley isn’t necessarily breaking new ground here, but he and the Nelms are invested in grounding these characters in a real place with real stakes. They may be dealing with tropes of the genre like “sins of the past” and revenge, but they come at it with genuine earnestness, just like all their previous movies.

RATING: ***

Catch on an interview with Ian and Eshom Nelms I took part in with my colleague, Ian Simmons over at Kicking the Seat