‘You Were Never Really Here‘, the 2017 film by Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, is a journey into hell. A special hell, one of the most terrible hells, the hell in a man’s mind and soul. The lead hero is played by Joaquin Phoenix, an actor whom I can only classify as one of the best cinema actors in the world today. In the last decade, after watching any movie he appeared in I say ‘this is his best role’. The statement remains true until his next film.
For the role in this film, Joaquin Phoenix put on about 20-30 kilograms. Joe is a bearded giant with a body riddled with scars and bruises, a veteran of America’s wars in the world, haunted by the images he saw and lived in them, but also by older traumas. Extremely brief flashbacks suggest that violence entered his life as a child and has continued unabated ever since. Now we find him as a hitman under the orders of a private detective, using extreme violence as a means to resolve conflicts and do some kind of justice. At home, he devotedly takes care of his mother, towards whom he perhaps has a sense of guilt derived from the domestic violence they were both exposed to decades ago. The story gets complicated when Joe is sent to rescue the teenage daughter of a senator. After extracting her – with maximum violence – from captivity, he himself falls victim to a trap. Finding the girl again and saving her will mean a lone hero’s war against an entire corrupt world. The hell within finds its correspondence in the politically and morally corrupt world outside. What else can be taken from a man who has nothing to lose? Is there any chance when the hero’s only way to express himself is violence?
Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe with the intensity he used us to when he takes on any role. The two female presences – Judith Roberts as his mother and the very young Ekaterina Samsonov are extremely suitable for the roles they play with minimalist restraint, in contrast to Phoenix. The violence is extreme, but in most cases not explicit – we see the results but not the action itself. ‘You Were Never Really Here‘ is a psychological study in post-trauma. Not all the details are clear, but that’s probably how it happens in real cases. On screen, this ambiguity works well and the result is impressive. A film that I recommend but with a warning – it is not easy to watch.