A Violent Separation is a 2019 thriller about two brothers who struggle with a terrible truth behind a tragedy that aims to tear three generations of a family apart.
Directors Kevin Goetz and Michael Goetz‘s latest crime drama A Violent Separation is built from a single moment in the front seat of a car, most probably right where screenwriter Michael Arkof hatched his idea for the story that spins from it. It’s a stagey, forced moment that is essential for the whole thing to get going but it’s also the weakest in the entire plot, one that fortunately finds its footing in the aftermath, buoyed by some good performances and and excellent direction.
It’s 1983 and Norman Young (Brenton Thwaites) is a local sheriff’s deputy in a backwater south Texas town. He’s a young, clean cut man living in a trailer on the lot of his where his brother Ray (Ben Robson) has taken in with his girlfriend Abbey (Claire Holt) and her father (Gerald McRaney) and younger sister Frances (Alycia Debnam-Carey). Ray’s not the faithful type though, openly having a fling with bartender El Camino (Francesca Eastwood), forcing Abbey to compete, leading to a confrontation that leaves her dead and the brothers, one helping the other. In comes plain-clothes Sheriff Ed Quinn (Ted Levine), a keen investigator, who whittles away at the truth, leaving others saddled with crippling remorse and a consuming guilt.
To give away too much would be to spoil the better limbs of A Violent Separation, a film that for much of its run time works hard to establish and maintain an earthy, languid look at the consequences of a terrible decision. The Goetz brothers build a truly authentic landscape for these characters to wallow within, purposefully letting things simmer in warm water as the seams unravel. The film is at all times, a beautiful-looking thing to explore, nearly every frame meticulously painted as part of a much larger image that deservedly takes time to come into view.
The story however is less illustrative, convoluted by moments that don’t feel as genuine as entanglements in the many characters keep some of this off balance. So too do a few conidendence that surely may have some believability perhaps but come about all too calculated in opening and closing doors to the plot. However, accepting these as part of the Goetz filmmaking toolbox, the movie holds better together with its themes of guilt and betrayal, even as the finale is a little overwrought.
Levine is the real standout here, in need of more screen time and stealing every scene he’s in, while Debnam-Carey does well with the weight she’s given as the story progresses. It’s just too bad the film can’t sustain some of the more pressure-cooker moments it sets up, leaving this more loose the further it tries to get tight. That’s dampened also by some later acting choices that try more for drama than truth, sometimes keeping this a little out of reach.
A Violent Separation is a solid potboiler that relies on its looks rather than its personality to sell its story, none of these people all that clearly defined or understood. There’s a good story here but it can’t get hold of its potential, keeping this a curious if unremarkable effort.