Vengeance

Ashton Kutcher and B.J. Novak in Vengeance

B.J. Novak's Vengeance, his feature film directorial debut, is an assured and well written comic thriller. Novak plays a New York based writer and podcaster, Ben, who travels to West Texas to attend the funeral of a young woman named Abilene Shaw. Though only a fitful acquaintance of the woman, Ben is embraced by her family who were led to believe by Abilene that Ben was her steady boyfriend. Abilene died from an overdose of opiates and her family feels that some skullduggery was involved. Ben is dubious of this, but thinks a profile of Abilene and her family would make a good podcast. Eventually, Ben realizes that there is more to the story than meets the eye and finds that he has come to share the family's need for, yes, vengeance.

Most of the comedy in the film arises from the fish out of water nature of the narrative. Ben gradually comes to realize that the West Texas natives he meets are not quite the aimless bumblefucks he assumed they would be. Furthermore, they show him the empathy he lacks under his culturally sophisticated façade. The people he meets are all balancing their vulnerability with toughness. A local drug lord who is the chief suspect turns out to have had a soft spot for Abilene because she read him Harry Potter novels over the phone. A music impresario, played by Aston Kutcher, shows incredible sensitivity in the recording studio, but we learn that this is a mask hiding a monstrous callousness. 

Novak's achievement here is that he is able to imbue nearly all his characters with shades of gray. Only the local constabulary are pictured as outright bozos. The cultural rites of West Texas are, on the whole, treated with affection and respect, though a rodeo sequence is overdrawn. Novak's handling of his large cast is exemplary with Boyd Holbrook's turn as Abilene's brother being the standout. Kutcher is merely adequate, lacking the Zen master implacability his role demands.

Vengeance is more than a promising debut. The rooftop opening sequence set in New York shows Novak could easily do a cosmopolitan comedy of manners, but he set his sights on something more expansive and he has largely succeeded. Even his choices that explore the meta level of his film, particularly his usage of John Mayer and Lana Del Rey, are provocative and effective. Whatever the future holds for Novak, Vengeance is intelligent and enjoyable film.