Having dealt with a duo of alien invasions for his Occupation films, it makes sense that Australian filmmaker Luke Sparke would want to look at something a little more grounded for his next cinematic feat. Whilst still working with an exaggerated mentality, Bring Him To Me is a crime thriller that bathes in a smaller, restricted atmosphere, confining its action to limited locations.
Set in the US, but filmed in Queensland, Bring Him To Me centres around a hardened driver (Barry Pepper) who’s under the thumb of ruthless mobster Veronica (Rachel Griffiths, going all in with a Boston-adjacent accent that lends the film an air of unintentional camp). It’s one of those ‘she says “jump”, he asks “How high?” situations’, and even though his latest job will earn him a healthy pay day, there’s reluctance in his actions as it involves one of the members of a recent heist (Jamie Costa), someone, against the Driver’s better judgement, he has developed a certain sympathy for.
Costa’s family man is very quickly framed early on as someone we are meant to care about, and whilst the mentions of his daughter and the desperation he felt in turning to crime to support her are traits we can respond to and understand, Costa’s performance itself isn’t presented with much subtlety. He’s more of an annoyance, to both us as an audience and to Pepper’s Driver, so it’s not always the easiest ask to care about someone we’d probably hand over to Veronica ourselves.
But that ultimately ends up being a lot of Bring Him To Me‘s problem, that it doesn’t know how to dial itself down. Pepper, Costa and Griffiths all feel as if they’re acting in a different film, and even though Sam Neill similarly leans into theatrics as another mobster of sorts – the one it’s believed the inexperienced Costa has stolen from (hence Veronica’s need to speak to him) – he manages to toe the line enough; Neill’s violent mobster is an absolute treat when he’s spitting threatening dialogue on set, and more of his unhinged energy would have been of use.
Ultimately a film that feels as if it’s borrowing too heavily from other crime dramas rather than presenting itself with the notion of being inspired by, Bring Him To Me can’t escape its unoriginality. And, unfortunately, within that unoriginality is the inability to elevate genre tropes. Sparke doesn’t necessarily strike as an incompetent director, he just needs to understand his surroundings further. Ambition is not his problem, more so the execution.
As run-of-the-mill as it is, I’m sure predominant male audiences with low expectations will appreciate the film’s masculine energy. There’s ingredients peppered throughout Bring Him To Me that suggest talent and good intent, it’s just unfortunate the final dish hasn’t reflected such.
TWO STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Bring Him To Me is screening as part of this year’s Brisbane International Film Festival, running between October 26th and November 5th, 2023. The film is scheduled for a national release on November 2nd, 2023.
