Mercy (2016) Reviews

• It's not rocket science

  joelbooska2016-11-25

  This is middle of the road for me. I did not think it was an exceptional thriller by any means but the story made sense in the end. ***SPOILERS**** Basically, the sons are from 2 different dads. The current dad is a hard butted shady dad, the previous dad was a wife beating jerk. 4 sons, 2 sons per whack job dad from the current timeline/past abusiveness hubby. The mother is suffering so the church spokesman/doctor comes to drop off a mysterious kit to "aid", "painlessly kill", the mother? We do not know..yet. Meanwhile, the brothers argue and all of a sudden, a home invasion. After about 1/4 of the movie finishes, the events are all recounted with a sloppy explanation as to what "really" went down. What went down was...the mother's old church group exacted vengeance in the form of baiting the brothers to give the mother the "kit"..what is the kit? Still don't know...yet. This is where the writing becomes super sloppy. Why all the hoo ha? Why not just take a bro hostage if instead of killing an entire family? Or, do the kit on the mother yourselves...or...wait for the family to leave, or...this is a big one, make your move BEFORE the family gets together. Frustrating story. We see a quick scene of conspiring via a cell phone with the church doctor. "Meet me at sundown". Hmm...that's a little hammy. Let me finish this up. The church completely guts the household just so one last remaining brother gives the mother the "kit" remedy? Yes, it is a remedy. It seems this entire time, the reluctance to give the mother the kit offered by the church DR. was because the family wanted her to die to get the inheritance. OK, so it wasn't pain meds, the mother wasn't some sort of Christian Scientist that was against the use of drugs, that wasn't the reason they might have honored her wishes. The mystery is solved...she would have LOVED to get some pain meds or, as we find out in the last moments, an experimental cure. But the family wasn't having it. It was payday. Everyone was dirty including the father who, very early on in the film, resented the offering of the kit by the church doctor. The church gets revenge against the mother's abusive husband years earlier by staging an accidental death and then years later, wipes out the whole fam in hopes someone will feed her the drug to make her all better..and..to rid the mom of vulture like family, just waiting for her money. OK. Fine. Whatever. I got it. I think? Who cares? The more I think about this story by actually writing it out, the lower my rating goes and now, at the end of this final paragraph, this film goes from the middle of the road to the bottom of the stack for me. Whoops! I shouldn't have tried so hard to think about it!

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• Tepid drama turns gripping home invasion.

  lotard2016-08-28

  Two pairs of brothers from different fathers convene at the family house to attend to their dying mother. Discussions on inheritance and euthanasia follow (or is it really euthanasia?), but we see little actual attending, as if the bed-ridden, half-conscious patient required no attention whatsoever. Hence, later in the movie, we share in the surprise of a home-invader, who finds out that the husband sleeps in the same room as his wife. So little is explained about the conflict between the brothers, that it barely sets us up for one of the "surprise reveals" that riddle the script. A more confident story-teller would have let us figure that out solely on the basis of the fact that the men differ in the amount of facial hair. One of the brothers brings along a girlfriend so timid, I believed she's just an infatuated co-worker, who hoped to moved the relationship forward by tagging along. She's told to mind her own business and that's mostly what she does. Home invasion follows. Gripping in its abruptness and competent in execution, it provides a respite from the shallow drama tedium. Unexpectedness of the times of death and their mundane quality is welcome. A two-perspective retelling of the events adds to the drama and the jump scares are earned. Alas, with so much time spent on cryptic, intentionally obfuscated dialogue and so little on actual storytelling (flashbacks might have helped), the deaths lack an emotional impact. A great comedic potential stemming from the fact that a bunch of amateurs invade a house filled with grown men, remains sadly untapped as well, especially considering some scenes later in the movie sent the audience laughing. The duality of the cult as a second family and a competition to the actual, dysfunctional family is never explored either. The sun sets and raises over an area so anonymous, it could be anywhere. This is in stark contrast to the house that feels surprisingly lived-in, almost to the point of telling more of the story than the dialogues. The cinematography is functional and the camera is (usually) in focus. Credit-roll, trailer-bait burning grass that spells 'Mercy' recalls the hilarious hijinks of 'The Purge' invaders. It complements the main theme of the movie which seems to be 'avoiding direct communication' (especially with the audience). Incidentally, mercy is what you might need to enjoy this movie. Too bad no one would be invading your cinema to administer it to you.

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• Starts off well, but quickly turns into silliness.

  Sleepin_Dragon2018-09-28

  Mercy wasn't necessarily a bad film, indeed the opening twenty minutes or so were rather intriguing, a nice build up, good motives for family feud, but once it started unravelling it transformed into nonsense. At times I was reminded of You're Next, but at no stage did it reach those levels of gripping excitement. It wasn't difficult to follow, but the realisation of who was behind the home invasion was dealt with in a way that you can only describe as heavy handed, the reveal three quarters of the way through was very silly, I couldn't take it seriously. Too many unanswered questions at the end, were all brothers aware of what was going on? Never fully answered. Quite well acted, with decent production values, the masks were very effective, but with those, as with the rest of the film, there's nothing new here. A little flat, 5/10

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• Some promising ideas, but ultimately not quite worthwhile.

  ryandannar2016-11-29

  A deathbed-drama turns into a home-invasion thriller, and dark secrets are revealed -- all to little effect -- in the clumsy and not-quite- worthwhile "Mercy." The plot involves four brothers who convene upon the family homestead as their mother nears death. The patriarch fathered only two of the boys. The other two are children from the dying woman's previous marriage; their father died under mysterious circumstances, leaving her a sizeable sum of money. There's a rift between both pairs of half-brothers, a rift which is aggravated by the living patriarch, who wishes to keep the inheritance to himself and his biological children. The drama plays-out with quiet tension, leaving us with a few too many questions -- like: The four of them have been provided with what appears to be a DIY euthanasia-kit by a local doctor. It's established that they all believe their mother is suffering. And yet, they unanimously object to the use of euthanasia. It seems this may stem from religious belief. And yet, the way they suspiciously eye one another about it, and the way the DIY kit keeps getting thrown away and then "significantly" re-appearing, it seems like all isn't what it appears to be. Well, and it's not, quite frankly. There are a few twists to this tale. The first is a home-invasion, which happens quite abruptly and changes the feel of the film. The second is the reveal of the identity of the invaders, which is more surprising than I had guessed. The third concerns the true nature of that euthanasia kit. Ultimately, having seen the full scope of the plot, I can see what someone may have seen in this material. It's a crafty setup. But it's terribly underserved by both the writing and the execution. A better version of this film would have had sharper dialogue and more closely-observed characters. The four brothers presented by this film are fairly generic guys; each is given a defining trait or two, but no meaningful dialogue is exchanged between them, other than whatever is necessary to advance the plot. A better film would have traced the deep rift between these siblings; it might have referenced a specific event in the past which touched them all in different ways; it might have said something about the nature of familial division. Instead, we're given four brothers who talk like crooks getting ready to pull a heist, each one suspicious of the others. We're given no insight into their personal lives. A better version of this film would also have played a bit more with the religious themes. There is a definite ironic comparison to be made between the dad's sternness, his presumed moralistic idealism, and the kind of faith which becomes part of the film's final act. A better film would also have made those final-act twists work better. These twists should be quite shocking -- but as delivered by this film, they just leave us feeling a little puzzled and unsatisfied. We need to feel, more strongly, the ironic nature of what happens at the end in the mother's room. A better film might have done this by setting-up certain signifiers earlier in the film, certain things which might have raised questions or doubts, so that when the final act pulls these sudden reversals, we can better appreciate what's happening and it doesn't feel so... well, kind of arbitrary. A better film would also have utilized the cinematography and the editing better. "Mercy" isn't exactly an ugly film, but it's a film without a strong sense of visual direction. This is a story which involves things both spoken and unspoken, secrets, and misdirection. Some clever camera-work and thoughtful editing could have helped to tell the story, could have "said" the things that the characters themselves aren't saying. Instead, "Mercy" gives us the flat, affectless, somewhat-shaky look which has become the hallmark of the generic, low- budget home-invasion thriller. Overall, it's not great film. It's barely a good one. There were certainly some promising elements here, but those are quite underserved by this film's thoughtless, generic execution.

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• Not that bad.

  megamelfina-995-9476752018-06-14

  I'm surprised at all the one star reviews - it is definitely not nearly that bad. I thought this was a good thriller, and I loved the 'twist'. I really enjoyed the conclusion. It was a little hard to follow at times, and I could have done without the short start, re-do, and ending format. However, I don't feel like that ruined the movie. I would recommend giving it a try - it's not perfect, but it's also not the worst movie ever as many reviews would have you believe.

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