Watching the film Bloodline, it’s difficult to imagine how it got made, given how its premise makes it feel like little more than an ill-fated pilot for a “Dexter” reboot. But in execution, it winds up being more watchable than it should, thanks in no small part to its moody visuals and stirring lead performance from, of all people, Seann William Scott.
In the film, Scott plays Evan Cole, a high school guidance counselor who has just had his first child with wife Lauren (Mariela Garriga). Theirs is a close-knit family unit, one that, including his overbearing mother Marie (Dale Dickey), Evan seems ready to kill for. And kill he does! But he doesn’t kill because of any genuine harm his loved ones end up in. Evan is just a part-time serial killer, kidnapping and torturing the deadbeat and abusive relatives his students confess to him about.
See, Evan grew up in an abusive household and lives every day by repressing a deep reservoir of rage that has to be released from time to time. While there’s a nutty pathology to his killings and mini-disc-recorded torture sessions, his intentions are largely pure. In every situation, we see a wounded teenager struggling and it’s clear that these kids would be better off without their alcoholic fathers and manipulative uncles.
But Evan doesn’t think these things through beyond killing two birds with one stone, cutting out the malignant parts of his students’ lives and giving himself an opportunity to relive past revenge. Because his childhood problem was solved with murder, he can’t see a better way to resolve things for his students. Just because he wanted his dad dead, doesn’t mean all these kids want to grow up without a father.
Unfortunately, the film’s script is too basic to give room to explore that particularly well. It’s a psychological thriller devoid of real psychology, using an easy set-up to score stylized kills, but failing to say anything about the bloodshed, or properly contextualize the violence. The film does at least look good, feeling very much like a De Palma nerd getting his first crack at aping his master, and the score from Trevor Gureckis is suitably synth-y.
But the primary reason the movie is so watchable despite being so hollow is Scott’s performance. If nothing else, this film is a solid reminder of his versatility and charm, presenting a character that most actors would imbue with absurd idiosyncrasy as a totally regular guy with deep seated issues bubbling under the surface. Scott’s Evan is intense, yes, and when we watch him perform violent acts, he turns the dial up on the discomfort, but the rest of the time, he feels like he could be any random high school guidance counselor.
It’s strange that “on screen restraint from an actor playing a serial killing vigilante” is Bloodline’s greatest strength, but that’s the one element keeping the film from being absolutely laughable, especially when the third act reveals the direction this narrative had been inching towards the whole time. Stronger writing and bolder ideas would have been nice, but some neon-lit murder and a fun turn from an underrated actor aren’t so bad.
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