Your Company
 

Romans

✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

United Kingdom · 2017
Rated R · 1h 31m
Director Ludwig Shammasian, Paul Shammasian
Starring Orlando Bloom, Janet Montgomery, Charlie Creed-Miles, Anne Reid
Genre Drama

Malky is a laborer who takes a job demolishing the local Catholic church. While working in the church -- the same one he attended as a child -- he is forced to confront haunting memories of the sexual abuse he experienced at the hands of a priest.

Stream Romans

What are people saying?

What are critics saying?

75

The Playlist by Asher Luberto

A sledgehammer to religious hypocrisy, Retaliation uses symbolism to recreate, visually, the trauma a child endures when molested by a priest.

40

The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg

Mostly, Retaliation accords Bloom a chance to deliver some impressive, anguished monologues, although the scenes focusing on those around him (particularly a late conversation between Montgomery and Ferns’s characters) hint at a more expansive, unrealized complexity.

60

The Guardian by Cath Clarke

There’s a kind of blunt brute force to [Bloom's] performance – and he looks almost unrecognisable, as if he’s using certain muscles in his face for the first time.

80

The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck

Retaliation doesn't provide easy viewing on any level, especially with its quietly shattering conclusion. But it does offer myriad rewards for those willing to endure its gut-wrenching emotionality.

70

Variety by Peter Debruge

Whether you’re skeptical of Bloom’s abilities or have long been a believer, you can’t help but respect what the actor does with Retaliation. And the same might be true whether you’re religious or not, seeing as how the film promises revenge, while leveraging cinema’s most powerful weapon: empathy.

63

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

Bloom does a nice job of expressing, wordlessly, where this man has been, what blend of guilt, fury and obligation drive him and shaped his life. It’s not the most subtle character or film built around an abuse survivor, but there’s substance in the performance that lifts Retaliation above its hammered-home metaphors.

Users who liked this film also liked