“I’m not a nice person. But I do have other qualities,” goes the note-perfect line-reading by the ever-indelible Dale Dickey. The G is a wholly original revenge picture. It has a wonderful trick of allowing an aging woman to be both powerful and desired. She gets to inflict revenge and gets to have sex. It’s such a rare combo that it stands out in the center of this very tightly-wound dark thriller.
What happens is that an elderly couple are evicted from their homes and put into a care facility, held captive for reasons that will soon become clear. In cahoots with their granddaughter, they break free of this forced guardianship, wherein some bad dudes cashed in on the couple’s presumed senility and are about to pay for it in blood.
Crisp and gritty, Karl R. Hearne’s direction is on exactly the right end of taught for his genre needs. The movie floats right at the surface for most of the runtime, never finding any sort of climax, but always edging toward some deeper denouement that never quite comes. Still, there is a tightness of control that is so appealing — that Hearne’s able to teeter on the knife’s edge of plotting, while conveying both meaningful family drama and tense dark thriller, is very good news for his sophomore effort.
As tightly wound as the movie is, it never does unwind, and largely, that’s a good thing. It does keep the grim suspense going, balancing genre while escalating tone and intensity as the characters enact their bloody revenge. Taking on the real-life American system of guardianship, which is designed to allow for some elder-abuse, the movie also comes with a point. Sharp direction and good performances anchor the slow burn to the finish and makes for a notable and new revenge movie. Let’s put Dale Dickey in the center of more movies, she’s astonishing, and after a prolific career of good supporting work, she’s earned the right. She does not need your guardianship, though, she has a certain set of qualities that will finish the job.