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The lives of a virile ex-con and a policeman's childless wife collide in this study of desperation, revenge and renewal. It's an engrossing, and properly adult drama, says Mike McCahill.

Austria’s nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in early 2009, Revanche begins as a grungily compelling urban character study before shifting into a softer, novelistic key. Writer-director Götz Spielmann sets out cross-referencing the movements of Viennese brothel enforcer and aspirant bank robber Alex (Johannes Krisch) with those of Robert (Andreas Lust), an upwardly mobile trainee patrolman. Where Alex’s potency is self-evident, Robert and wife Susanne (Ursula Strauss) have thus far failed to conceive the child they so badly want. Eventually, these two worlds collide; inevitably, casualties ensue.

When the survivors, stricken with guilt and grief, relocate to the countryside, matters threaten to turn bloodier still: Spielmann’s compatriot Michael Haneke would surely relish the bandsaw given prominence in Alex’s woodshed. Bear in mind the title’s multiple meanings, though; that this archaic term for vengeance can also speak to comebacks, second chances, renewal. Steeped in brooding Mitteleuropan atmosphere, and patiently, compassionately observing life's great healers - time, nature, hard work, women - going about their business, this is engrossing, properly adult drama.

 

Mike McCahill on 25th June 2010
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