This review contains spoilers.
Everyone remembers Travis Bickle’s demented voice-over in Taxi Driver, but none of Ramsay’s films contain voice-over narration—she doesn’t need it. This is not to say that Scorsese, an oft-imitated master of the device, spoon-feeds the audience, but Ramsay seems more trusting of her viewer to pick up on visual clues. Joe’s trauma is dramatized through abrupt, elliptical flashbacks that intimate horrific childhood abuse and relate his distressing experiences in the line of duty, first as a soldier and later as an FBI agent. Though relayed only in snatches, Joe’s memories form a tapestry of pain so visceral that any further explanation for his current line of work would have felt superfluous.
Directed by Lynne Ramsay. R, 89 min.
